|
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Controversial lamps 'totally paid'
By Rene H. Martel
CEBU CITY -- The alleged overpriced purchase of the Asean summit lampposts, which cost the government from P85,000 to P325,916 each, may already be a done deal.
A document from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) indicates it is and that the people behind Fabmik Construction and Equipment Co. have already cashed in their final fat check.
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
Chat with Comelec spokesman James Jimenez at 10 a.m., Thursday, March 15 (RP time). Click here to join.
The only remaining collectible is the "retention money" of P3,141,388.37 that the contractor was asked to deposit prior to the execution of the contract as a form of deposit.
And even that can't be withheld or confiscated under Republic Act 9184, a point that Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Regional Director Roberto Lala seems to stress in a separate letter to the DBM.
The amount, according to the DBM, was contained in the February 26, 2007 list of due and demandable accounts payable-external creditors (LDDAP-EC) that the DWPH prepared.
The LDDAP-EC totaled P7,859,894.55 and contained allocations for other summit-related expenditures. For DPWH alone, the budget for the Asean and East Asia summits was about P300 million.
Acting Deputy Ombudsman Virginia Santiago learned of the payment in a conference with DBM Central Visayas Director Carmela Fernan and officials of the Commission on Audit Wednesday.
The meeting was held behind closed doors but an apparently frustrated Santiago later admitted that the original agenda was how to facilitate the immediate suspension of payment without being forced to go to court.
"I wanted to stop the payment to prevent further damage. But it seems that damage has already been done," she said.
No elective official will ever be held administratively accountable for the purchase, thanks in part to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling in the Rodolfo Aguinaldo vs. Luis Santos et. al. case.
Based on the ruling, an elected official who gets reelected is exempted from whatever administrative liability was committed during the previous term.
If the official loses the election or, for one reason or another, refuses to run or is barred from running, administrative liability is extinguished as well because the official no longer holds a government post.
At best, a criminal case can be filed.
"I wish there was a way to have the Supreme Court reconsider that ruling," Santiago said.
Fabmik Construction and Equipment Co. supplied the DPWH with at least four of the five decorative lamppost models used during the summits-the roundhead, the single arm, the double arm and the triple arm.
The roundheads cost P224,000 each and, at a total of 124 units, cost the government a total of P27 million.
The single arms, meanwhile, cost P314,698 each or a total of P24,546,469.74 at 78 pieces.
The double arms, for its part, cost P18,903,168 at P325,916.69 each for 58 pieces.
The triple arm is the most expensive, at P350,090.48 each. Fortunately, there are only four of them for P1,400,361.92.
The fifth model is the more common ones found along the ceremonial route in Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City. Each cost P85,000 and an initial headcount places the number at 1,600 units.
Fabmik and a second firm, Gampik Construction and Development Corp., supplied the fifth model.
The Mandaue City Government, through the Office of the Mayor and the Office of the City Engineer, prepared the program of works and estimates (POWE) for the lampposts in Mandaue.
It picked the designs and canvassed the price.
Fernan wrote Santiago last March 13 to reveal that payment was already made but the letter got held at the agency's records division.
Thus Santiago got the news during the conference that, according to a staff member, ended before it began.
Santiago said the DBM's revelation was a blow to the investigation. She will fly to Manila to seek an audience with Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez on Friday and come up with a possible plan B.
Still, she admitted, the news didn't come as a complete surprise.
She said even before the investigation could start, DPWH Assistant Director Marlina Alvizo already said 85 percent of the total contract price had been released by way of progress billing.
Based on Fernan's letter, the DBM did what it could to stop the payment even if only the P3.1-million retention money remained.
They wrote the DPWH last March 6 and asked it to withdraw the LDDAP-EC after hearing that the anti-graft office was looking into the transaction.
We were concerned because once the Cash Release Program of Accounts Payable will be issued by our Central Office on the 3rd week of this month for DPWH, we will be processing the Notice of Cash Allocations instructing the bank to credit the amount directly to the account of the said creditor," Fernan's letter said.
But the DPWH, in a letter signed by Regional Director Roberto Lala, said nothing could be done.
Lala, in the letter dated March 7, 2007, said the Government Procurement Reform Act provides that retention money maybe requested for release upon substitution of its equivalent an irrevocable standby letter of credit, bank guarantee or surety bond. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (March 15, 2007 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
