City official calls food pack raps ‘malicious’

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – City Legal Officer Atty. Joselito Bayatan labelled  as “malicious, speculative, guess work, and fabricated complaint” the criminal and administrative charges filed by a businessman and a media practitioner against Mayor Evelio Leonardia and five other City Hall heads and employees before the Ombudsman for alleged overpriced food packs that were distributed during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

In a statement issued Monday, Bayatan said the complainants – businessman Antonio Wong and mediaman Edgar Cadagat – were “disgruntled suppliers” of the City Government and had become habitual “fake complainants” against Leonardia after the City withheld payment of their highly-questionable transaction.

Wong and Cadagat have a pending P3.774-million collection claim against the City Government, involving alleged “midnight purchases” of volcanic soil and aggregates base coarse made in March 2016, when the previous Puentevella administration was about to end, Bayatan said.

“When their billing was duly examined, it was discovered that the procurement made in March 2016 was among several ‘midnight’ purchases, and in violation of the 20-day minimum bidding period under the Procurement Law,” he further said.

“Worse, they submitted delivery receipts worth only P1,260,473.10 against a claim of P3.774 million. Thus, the absence of complete delivery receipts is prima facie evidence that the remaining P2,513,526.90 partook of the nature of ‘ghost deliveries’ for which Wong and Cadagat are demanding to be paid.”

Bayatan also said that “in good faith, we have advised Wong and Cadagat, and other suppliers similarly situated, to lodge their payment claim with the Commission of Audit (COA), as allowed under government rules, for a fair and honest determination of their “collection” demand, but they refused to do so until now, because should they proceed to COA, their suspected “ghost deliveries” and other violations will be validated.”

Thus, Wong and Cadagat became “disgruntled suppliers” and begun their “black propaganda” fit against Leonardia, according to Bayatan, adding that the two have become the usual “fake complainants” before the Ombudsman and the DILG.

Based on news reports, it appears that Wong and Cadagat tried to build a case for alleged overpriced food packs by merely using the “Program of Work” as their ‘proof’ of actual purchase, and the “Cash Advances” as the source of funds for the “Program of Work.”

“However, that is very erroneous because any Program of Work is merely a project proposal based on projected quantities and estimated costs. It does not prove at all how the cash advance for the project was actually spent. On the other hand, actual expenditures for items in the Program of Work are documented by official receipts or sales invoices of suppliers who sold the food supplies to the City,” Bayatan said.

“Had Wong and Cadagat presented the latter documents, these would have destroyed their case because these will show that the supplies were actually purchased at prices much less than originally estimated in the Program of Work,” Bayatan further said.

Bayatan explained further that the emergency purchases for food supplies to implement  the Program of Work underwent proper procurement procedures through the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), as required by law, before actual purchases were made, so as to avail of the most reasonable and fair prices in the market at that point in time.

“Indeed, Wong and Cadagat expertly made distortions in their interpretation of the facts in their complaint. That’s why their presentation was all about guess work, malicious speculations, faulty argumentations, and invented theories,” Bayatan stressed.

Bayatan added that officials and employees who are respondents in this complaint will await the official copy of the complaint from the Ombudsman to ascertain the validity and genuineness of the “proof documents” cited in the complaint and to file their answers in the proper venue.