Photo by Ryan Leagogo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines–The total cost of the controversial Makati City Hall II parking building was P2.2 billion, and not P2.7 billion, a government auditor told a Senate hearing on Wednesday .
“Based on contract review reports of our technical audit specialists, the total cost of the project from Phase 1 to 5 is P2.218 billion. It is not P2.7 billion, it’s P2.2 billion, excluding the furniture,” Cecilia Caga-Anan, auditor previously assigned to Makati City, said when she testified before the Senate blue ribbon committee.
“Yung fixtures hindi na namin nasama doon. Pati na yung mga elevators and everything kasama doon,” Caga-Anan said, responding to queries of Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
(The fixtures are not included there. But the elevators and everything were included)
The amount cited by the auditor was different from the P1.56 billion mentioned in the plunder and graft charges filed against incumbent Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Jun-Jun” Binay and his father and namesake, Vice President Jejomar Binay, along with Caga-Anan, and other individuals.
The complainants led by defeated mayoralty bet in Makati, Renato Bondal, later corrected the amount in the complaint to P2.7 billion.
Despite this, Caga-Anan maintained that she found no anomaly on the costing of the project.
“Based on existing reports, like the contract review reports, the inspection reports, files of the annual audit report, files of the notice of suspensions, the audit observation memorandum, and the notice of disallowance, wala po kaming nakikita…” she said, still responding to Trillanes’ query.
But Commission on Audit chairperson (COA) chair Grace Pulido-Tan said her office has not yet issued any clearance on the questioned project in Makati.
“Wala po. Wala po kaming clearance na ibinigay at hindi po talaga kami nagbibigay ng clearance to that effect. There’s no such thing,” Tan said.
“I mean the Commission does not issue clearances of the nature or the tenor that was described,” she said.
The COA chief explained that Caga-Anan simply made a report in a memorandum submitted to the director of the COA’s National Capital Region local government sector.
“So it is an internal communication your honor and I don’t know how the City of Makati got a copy of it,” Tan said.
“Most of what I heard on the COA was I think taken on this memo which is really just a memorandum, an internal one and is still being evaluated in central office by us. So I would say at this stage, this is just a report and it is being subjected to evaluation along with all the other documents and papers,” she added.
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