Tomas questions Rama on Carbon market deal

FORMER Cebu City mayor and south district representative Tomas Osmeña has another bone to pick with his successor Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

In a letter addressed to the mayor, Osmeña questioned why a P167.3-million project contract for the proposed reconstruction of Cebu Carbon Market Unit II was awarded “haphazardly” to contractor Geety Realty and Development Corp.

Osmeña said he looked into the qualifications of Geety and found that the contractor should have been disqualified at the outset of the bidding.

“One salient basis is that the company’s track record requirement does not even meet the size range and license category as set by the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) to engage in such hefty infrastructure project with the Cebu City government,” he said in his letter.

He attached a copy of PCAB Circular No. 001 series of 2009 which shows the allowable ranges of contract cost for the different licenses issued to contractors.

Osmeña didn’t state in his letter though what Geety’s license category is. Geety representatives could not be reached for comment.

“Another alarming fact is that Geety Realty & Development Corp. is also the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Legal Service for submitting a spurious Income Tax Return (ITR) and Tax Clearance,” Osmeña said.

He said it was confirmed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). He attached a BIR tax clearance dated July 2013 which stated that Geety has no “tax liability” based on its records.

Osmeña said the transaction may have been caused by gross negligence and/or abuse of authority.
The city already paid over P25 million to the contractor in March last year. The amount represents 15 percent of the total project cost.