|
Thursday, January 09, 2003
City glad over Ombud ruling on heavy equipment case
By Joe A. Medinilla
ACTING Dumaguete City Legal Officer Neil Rey Lagahit was happy that the Ombudsman-Visayas denied the city government in its request for inspection of three controversial heavy equipment bought by the past administration.
Lagahit told Sun.Star that he praised the decision of the Ombudsman since it meant that it acknowledged the technical reports of the city technical committee and the Commission on Audit regional technical committee.
Both committees had agreed that the heavy equipment had defects although these complied with the specifications cited for the purchase.
"We are very happy with the decision of the ombudsman that finally we succeeded in calling their attention and they will base their decision on the two technical committee reports," the acting city legal officer said.
Lagahit said that it was "very impossible" for a heavy equipment to be declared as brand new when it has a list of defects as found by the separate technical inspection teams.
He added that the order of the Ombudsman denying their urgent motion for an ocular inspection should not be construed as if the city has already losing the case.
This, Lagahit said, should be construed as a success since the Ombudsman has acknowledged the city government's request.
The officer believed the Ombudsman would use the two technical reports as basis for deciding on the city's complaint.
Last December 11, the Ombudsman-Visayas denied the motion of the city government for an ocular inspection of the P17 million worth of heavy equipment bought during the term of Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo.
The Ombudsman explained that it had no technical competence to properly conduct an ocular inspection of the equipment.
Ombudsman Prosecutor Samuel Malazarde, who signed the order, said that based on records the Local Technical Committee of the City of Dumaguete and the Regional Technical Committee of the Commission on Audit in Region-7 had already inspected and came up with results of their separate inspection.
(January 9, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
