COA tells Capitol to refund P540M spent for projects

The Commission on Audit (COA) has asked the Cebu provincial government to refund P540 million of illegal disbursements to infrastructure projects which were implemented during the term of former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

In its annual audit report, the COA said the province paid for 58 infrastructure projects from 2007 to 2011 that lacked approval from the Cebu Provincial Board (PB).

Without the ratification, the disbursements are considered “illegal and therefore subject to disallowance” for violating the Government Procurement Reform Act, the COA report said.

“We recommend that the present administration ensure that the disallowances be settled by the persons or officials identified as liable in the notices of disallowances,” the report added.

Provincial Board (PB) Member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez-Zaballero said the government auditors’ findings affirmed the decision of Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to disapprove payment to contractors.

Signatories

Zaballero said they will send notices to Garcia, who now represents the third district in Congress, and the other signatories of the contracts to explain the disallowances.

“The directive from COA is for us to make measures on how to settle this. So we will summon them to explain why this happened. But we will give them time,” she said.

As head of the PB’s Budget and Appropriations Committee, Zaballero invited state auditors to appear before the PB session for guidance on how to deal with the remaining unpaid contracts.
She said the amount could not have ballooned to P540 million if COA took note of the disallowances in the previous years.

“I suggest that there will be no appropriations for the further payment of these contracts in the annual budget for next year,” Zaballero said.

Withhold

Of the amount, P300 million worth of contracts are due for payment since it has already been completed with some finished as early as 2006, Zaballero said.

But since assuming office July last year, Davide remained adamant on withholding payment to contractors, saying that paying the projects “is equivalent to condoning an illegal act.”

In its audit report, COA said the projects could not be traced to the annual budget ordinance of the province for the respective year.

It said the contracts of the projects also cannot be found in the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) on the year it was undertaken or in any supplemental budget.