PUBLIC consultations are supposedly not required whenever Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) intends to enter contracts such as the bulk water supply which tied up with Metro Pacific Water Investments Corp. (MetroPac).
This was the response of COWD executive Eduardo Montalvan to City Councilor Teodulfo Lao Jr.'s earlier statement, criticizing the COWD officials for acting like a private organization as it fails to conduct public consultations before entering the bulk water supply contract.
Lao said there should be public discussions for matters that concern the public, in this case, the water supply.
But for Montalvan, public consultations are not necessary since COWD is a government corporation.
"Do we really need to conduct public consultation every time we enter contracts? We are a government owned and controlled corporation, is there a law that says every time we sign a contract we need to consult the city council?" Montalvan told reporters in a press conference last Thursday.
The chairman of COWD's board of directors further said: "We however informed the mayor of all our actions, the mayor was informed since the start of negotiation until it was signed. Now it is not our problem if the mayor did not inform the city council, but we don't have the responsibility to consult them in everything we do."
Last year, MetroPac bagged the 30-year contract with COWD for the bulk water supply.
The project also includes the construction of new water transmission lines and rehabilitation of the Camaman-an Reservoir to supply the COWD, which currently has about 90,000 service connections.
The signing of the contract in Manila came as a shock to some city officials as it was supposedly done without the public's knowledge.
City officials, among them Councilor Lao, feared for a possible water rate increase with the MetroPac's involvement.
"As part of its compliance to good governance conditions, COWD's processes are carried out with due diligence seeing to it that the appropriate procurement laws are complied with," the COWD statement said.
Following dismissed general manager Engineer Rachel Beja's revelations that another joint venture will soon be entered with MetroPac on water distribution, the City Council hopes to be actively involved in the process and let the public participate too.