DIRECTORS of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) who were recently slapped with a 90-day suspension order by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) said they will appeal the decision on their suspension.
Beneco director Rocky Aliping said while they respect the decision of NEA, they will appeal the decision by asking the court for an injunction for them to explain that there were no irregularities in their award of the contract to the security agency.
The June 27 NEA order is immediately executory, as Aliping said they are now working for a motion for reconsideration to the agency and will work for the issuance of an injunction on the NEA order by the Court of Appeals.
Aliping, together with directors Alfredo Santos, Peter Busaing, Michael Lawana, Erminio Suclad, Gaspar Leung and former director Jerry Marave, were recently slapped with a 90-day suspension order by NEA administration for violating procurement policies in awarding security agency contracts.
Marave now sits as Benguet Provincial board member after winning in the May 13 polls.
The order was issued by NEA Administrator Editha Bueno after the power utility’s board failed to comply with the requirements for holding a public bidding of purchases that are more than P500,000.
Bueno said “since the security agencies involved in the case each deploy 32 security guards for Beneco, it is obvious the contract amount involves more than P500,000.”
The suspension order is a result of a complaint filed before NEA by Sidekick Force Investigation and Security Services through its director Ronald Bahni who questioned the board’s award to GMT Interlink Management Inc. without any public bidding last year.
Beneco earlier entered into contracts with both Sidekick and Interlink as security providers until a board resolution awarded the contract solely to Interlink.
In their reply to NEA, the directors justified their move saying the 2008 contract with Interlink was merely renewed by the previous directors and also treating the award as repeat orders.