COA’s updated AOM slow in coming — MBTF
SUSPECTED CORRUPTION DURING LIM’S TERM
MAYOR Belen Fernandez finds reason to call out City Auditor Michael Basa for the Commission on Audit’s (COA) delayed publication of updated reports on some suspected corruption-ridden projects of the previous city administration.
According to Mayor Fernandez, she continues to wait for the updated Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) of COA updating the “weak” report on questionable projects undertaken by the past city administration under then Mayor Brian Lim.
In a talk to newsmen last September 8, the mayor cited a road project in Barangay Malued reportedly undertaken by now Councilor Alfie Fernandez, as its contractor already affected by scaling.
She said the same situation with an Alex Siapno as a contractor of the Lim administration in a project on Zamora Street and the unfinished elevation of the Malimgas Public Market. Both projects were abandoned when Mayor Brian Lim lost in his reelection bid on May 9, 2022.
She said Councilor Alfie Fernandez is also believed to be the contractor of the Tondaligan Amphitheater whose construction, the Mayor said, caused the flooding in the adjacent Justice Hall.
Mayor Fernandez said the AOMs of COA will be added as basis to the legal action she said she would file
She also cited an earlier finding of COA that was utterly weak. She referred to the Lim administration’s purchase of CCTVs that were 70 percent defective, and COA did not recommend criminal prosecution against those behind the purchase, but merely recommended to locate the contractor who could no longer be found.
Then, COA merely ordered the officials who paid the ghost projects to restitute the amount to the city government over the two missing wooden boats, even if it knows that ghost projects were paid using public funds.
COA was also asked by Mayor Fernandez to also look into the deliberate deletion of computer files of the Public Order and Safety Office and the One-Stop Business Center of the past city administration. To date, the city auditor has not submitted its report. (Leonardo Micua)
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