DPWH official faces trial on overpriced lampposts

Another official of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas (DPWH 7) will face trial over the alleged anomalous purchase and installation of 300 overpriced decorative lampposts in Mandaue City when Cebu hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in 2007.

The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas found sufficient grounds to indict Leah Negre on charges of violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Bail was recommended at P30,000.

Negre, chairman of DPWH’s Regional Estimating Committee, was particularly charged before the Cebu City trial court for giving “unwarranted benefits, advantage, or preference” to Gampik Construction and Development Inc.; and for causing “undue injury to the government.”

A reinvestigation conducted by the anti-graft office showed that Negre prepared and submitted an excessively overpriced Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC).

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