City wants P2.5-M fee returned
THE Commission on Audit (COA) has given the nod to the Dagupan City government to take immediate action to recover the P2.5 million paid to a contractor as mobilization fee for the construction of the aborted Maternal Child Care and Lying-in Hospital.
State Auditor Virgilio Quinto said Mayor Belen Fernandez should write A.S.S. Construction represented by Robert Sison to return the P2.5 million which it collected on two occasions as mobilization fees for the hospital planned for construction at the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School.
The first payment was P1.4, representing 15 percent mobilization fee for design and build, and P1.04 million as 15 per cent mobilization fee for site development.
No mobilization was, however, undertaken since the Department of Education (DepEd) did not give approval for the transfer of the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School, and neither did the Department of Health issue a permit for the construction of the hospital planned by then Mayor Benjamin Lim.
That planned hospital has been permanently shelved and the City Development Council (CDC) already realigned P27 million of the P34 million hospital budget for other projects.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod approved the realignment in its regular session on September 5.
Fernandez said given Dagupan’s current poor financial standing, it can not afford to waste funds and must recover the full amount paid to a contractor which did not deliver the services.
The Dagupan sangguian is reportedly keen on demanding the return of the mobilization fee as well.
Quinto was also asked to advise the city government on what can be done about the two-storey building for a proposed library that was already completed by the same contractor without public bidding.
Romeo Rosario, city planning and development officer and BAC chairman, said the city government needs guidance on actions that could be taken over a completed project that was built in clear violation of the law.
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