FOUR officials of the city government who were among those named in a complaint  filed  before the Ombudsman in connection with the construction of an P84-million tourism-commercial building at the Magsaysay Park, branded the accusation against them as “unfounded” and “irresponsible”.

This was indicated in the joint counter-affidavit submitted to the Ombudsman on Tuesday by Marcelo Calimlim Prado, assistant city engineer; Roy Sabado Laforteza, assistant legal officer; Luz Flores de Guzman, City Budget Officer 1V and Emmanuel Palisoc-Palaganas, City Planning Officer IV.

The four stated that the claim of the complainant that members of the Local Technical Committee “feloniously conspired with the contractors and other members of the Local Pre-qualification Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) in violation of law“ is totally irresponsible, malicious and devoid of factual and legal basis

All four received the order of the Ombudsman to submit their respective counter-affidavits on July 13, 2007.

The four are members of the Local Technical Committee with Prado as chairman, who were named as such by virtue of Executive Order No. 60A, series of 2006 issued by former Mayor Benjamin Lim on April 3, 2006.

Others named respondents in the complaint filed on March 15, 2006 before the Ombudsman by one Edward Santos Jr. were former Mayor Benjamin Lim, former City Administrator Rafael Baraan, as well as Mark Joseph Siapno and Alexander Siapno, private respondents.

The group alleged that as provided for in Section III of the Executive Order, “the Local Technical Committee shall provide technical assistance to the Local Pre-qualification Bids and Awards Committee and the chairman shall attend its meeting to present reports and recommendations of the Local Technical Committee.

De Guzman, in an interview, said the Local Technical Committee was tasked by the members ofthe local PBAC to evaluate the technical proposals of the bidders and verify if the same are responsive to the minimum requirements of the bidders and verify if the same are responsive to the minimum requirements set forth in the Terms of Reference for the project.

De Guzman said the Local Technical Committee did not have any hand or participation in the conduct of the Pre-qualification of Contractors, Bidding, Evaluation of Bids and Recommendation of Awards concerning the project.

In their joint counter-affidavit, they said that this is borne out by documents relative to the pre-qualification, bidding, evaluation of bids and award of the project to the winning bidder, where not a single signature or initial of any member of the Local Technical Committee can be found.—LM

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