City Hall awards contract without SP OK
SP HIT BY “TSUNAMI”
THE Dagupan City Mayor’s Office again misled and pulled the rug from the under the Sangguniang Panglunsod’s feet.
Amid denials from City Administrator Vlad Mata, documents obtained by The PUNCH show that the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of Dagupan City has already conducted a bidding as early as January 10, 2012 and awarded a more than P4 million contract for Phase 1 of the Tsunami Hill, a project which the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) has yet to approve, last January 17.
Hence, unknown to the SP, the contract was already awarded when the scale model of the proposed project during the continuation of the hearing on the 2012 budget on March 5, attended by City Administrator Vladimir Mata, Engr. Geronimo Tablada of the City Engineering Office and Architect Jose Torio of the City Planning Office.
Mata, during the hearing, categorically denied that a bidding was conducted.
The set of documents that The PUNCH obtained included the Abstract of Bids as Read dated January 10, 2012, indicating two participating bidders, namely Aqui Nanz Trading and Construction and LM Diaz Trading & Construction, which won the contract for the construction of a grouted rip-rap embankment (Tsunami Hill) Phase 1 at the island barangay of Pugaro costing P4,016,171.71.
The Abstract of Bids as Read was signed by Mata; Atty. Roy Laforteza, BAC Vice Chairman; Eduardo Magno, Virgil Tangco and Nestor de Vera, BAC members; Marcelo Prado, Head of the BAC-Technical Working Group; and Augusto Cesar Ventenilla, end-user unit.
City Auditor Ofelia Celi signed as one of the two observers notwithstanding the fact that no budget nor approval for the project was appropriated.
The endorsement of the project by City Engr. Virginia Rosario was nowhere to be found.
CONTRACT SIGNED
Mayor Benjamin Lim signed the Notice of Award on January 14 addressed to Ms. Lanila M. Diaz, manager of L.M.Diaz Trading and Construction located at Callejon Extension, Pogo Chico, Dagupan City being the lowest bidder the contract at P4,011,739.05.
The contract of agreement was signed by Lim and Diaz on January 17.
PUNCH sources said the amount will be sourced from unspent calamity fund appropriated in 2010, a move that is reportedly in violation of Section 21 of R.A. 10121, the Local Government Code and budgeting rules.
CONSTRUCTION
On February 22, Diaz wrote City Engr. Rosario requesting site supervision by her office on the project.
The next day, February 23, Rosario wrote back to Diaz asking her not to start with the project until the City Engineering Office has submitted documents pertaining to the soil test and the report from the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau.
In the afternoon of March 5, Tablada confirmed before the SP that representatives from the BGMS were arriving in Dagupan to conduct boring test at the proposed site of the Tsunami Hill, which is envisioned as a shelter where residents of Barangay Pugaro can run to in case a tsunami strikes.
The boring test was required by Rosario in her response to the letter of Diaz asking supervision of the project.
Mata, answering separate questions posed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the SP, and Councilor Alfie Fernandez categorically denied that a bidding was undertaken.
Mata, however, admitted that the project was advertised in the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PHIL-GEPS) for bidding.
Torio also said the whole project will cost P9 million, hence, the second phase is expected to cost P5M.
In the proposed 2012 budget submitted by city hall to the SP, however, a P10 million allocation is scheduled for the Tsunami Hill.
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