‘City shouldn’t pay SRP contractor’ –Osmeña

Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district said one of the private contractors of the South Reclamation Project (SRP) should not be paid.

“They cheated us, the (SRP)  access road to Mambaling has no foundation. We spent millions on that road to make it usable. When we looked underneath the asphalt, we found out that it was all mud,” Osmeña said, referring to TOA Corp., which has yet to be paid P28.5 million in fees.

“Everyone who passes there knows what I am talking about. That’s part of their project and they didn’t fix it,” Osmeña said.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the City Council’s budget and finance committee said TOA made their payment claims in 2002.

“But the city deferred payment because that time there was no income from the SRP,”  he said.

Daluz recommended release of payment to TOA Corp. in a resolution presented to the council during their June 15 session.

However, the council wanted the matter referred to the city legal office first.

Osmeña said the city can consider paying TOA Corp. only  when they redo the project  following the proper specifications.

“You know, whenever a truck goes by, it sinks,.” he said of the access road.

On Sept. 17, 2002, the city government awarded to TOA Corp. the construction of the SRP infrastructure stage 1 project.

A notice to proceed was issued to the winning contractor on Feb. 6, 2003.

TOA completed the project on Feb. 19, 2004 and turned over the work to Cebu City on Oct. 25, 2004.

But on Jan. 23, 2006, TOA submitted to the city a price escalation billing statement in the amount of P36.2 million.

They submitted a corrected price escalation billing statement on Feb. 27, 2009, this time in the amount of P28.5 million.

Since then, TOA has been writing Osmeña and now mayor Michael Rama to claim the P28.5 million mentioned in their price escalation billing statements.

On Nov. 25, 2010, Rama tasked an ad hoc committee led by City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete to evaluate and determine the propriety and reasonableness of TOA’s monetary claims.

In a resolution dated April 1, 2011, the committee reported that it “has determined the validity, propriety and reasonableness of the claim of TOA Corporation and has recommended to Hon. Mayor Michael L. Rama the approval of the contract price adjustment with price escalation claim based on te revised billing dated Feb. 27, 2009 with a total amount of P28.5 million”.

The committee cited section 6 of the project contract agreement which says that “the implementation of rules and regulations regarding adjustment of contract price adopted and approved by the City Government will be applied in this Contract”.

Using the adhoc committee report as his basis, Daluz also proposed in his draft resolution for the release of payment to TOA Corp.

Daluz said that the appropriation for TOA Corp. should be included in the next supplemental budget. /Correspondent Edison A. Delos Angeles