Monday, August 04, 2008
City taxpayer questions P10M computer purchase
AFTER writing the tanod-bayan, a taxpayer now wants Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez to help delve deeper into the allegedly overpriced computer purchase in 2002 and 2003.
In a letter, Roque Nacar asked Fernandez to supply him copies of documents on the 2002-2003 purchase of P10 million worth of computers in 20 barangays of the city’s northern congressional district.
Quoting a record of the Department of Budget and Management, Nacar said that P500,000 was scheduled for release in each of the 20 barangays.
These barangays are Adlaon, Agsongot, Apas, Binaliw, Busay, Carreta, Central Proper, Ermita, Guba, Hipodromo, Kamputhaw, Lahug, Lusaran, Luz, Mabolo, Pahina Central, Pasil, Pulang Bato, Sambag 1, Zapatera.
The amount came from the Land Bank of the Philippines through the Local Government Service Equalization Fund.
“Specifically, I want to know if the funds had been officially released and to get copies of the release records. If not, I want to request a certification to this effect,” read
Nacar’s letter to Fernandez.
He presumed that the documents will come from the General Services Office and the City Treasurer’s Office.
Nacar believes that the budget was released to 19 bara-ngays, excluding Carreta, which was already cleared by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
In a July 6 letter to Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutier-rez, Nacar asked that the anti-graft head look into how the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas resolved the 2003
complaint filed by Mariano Nadera on the purchase of computers.
In the letter, Nacar stated how the office only investigated one aspect of the complaint, the supposed purchase of computers that cost P100,000 per unit in Barangay Carreta. The market value then was accordingly less than P39,000.
But the 2003 complaint covered all the 20 barangays.
In both letters to the Fer-nandez and Gutierrez, Nacar invoked the “interest of transparency.”
Nadera’s complaint was filed on Jan. 15, 2003. It impleaded Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north district), former Carreta barangay captain Helen Bolabola and other officials, and Manila-based supplier Global Trade Development Corp.
The charge against del Mar was immediately dropped, for lack of basis, while the charge against the barangay officials was dismissed for being moot and academic. The supposed crime was not consummated following the cancellation of disbursement vouchers after the filing of the complaint. (JGA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 4, 2008 issue)
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