Auditor testifies, says lampposts are overpriced

“BLOATED!”

This was how state auditor Alfredo Torrequemada described the prices of the 1,800 decorative lampposts installed in Metro Cebu for the 2007 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.

Torrequemada yesterday took the witness stand as the Sandiganbayan’s fourth division conducted the trial at the Palace of Justice in Cebu City.

He said a competitive bidding for the purchase of the lampposts was shortened so the materials will be ready for the Asean Summit.

Torrequemada said the Commission on Audit even issued a notice of disallowance that disapproved the transaction.

However, the purchase and installation of the decorative lampposts still pushed through.

Named respondents in the case pending before Sandiganbayan’s fourth division are former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Central Visayas (DPWH-7), city engineers of Mandaue City, and former Mandaue City mayor and now Provincial Board member Thadeo Ouano.

In an interview, defense lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu, counsel of the Mandaue City engineers, said the COA report used in the reinvestigation of the cases didn’t even include her clients.

Dalawampu said her clients only prepared the Program of Work and Estimates (POWE) for the project as requested by the DPWH-7 office.

The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas found probable cause to indict the respondent for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Rep. Arturo Radaza, then mayor of Lapu-Lapu City, was among the respondents in the administrative complaint but was eventually dropped from the case since he was reelected as mayor in May 2007.

All the other respondents were found guilty of grave misconduct for the acquisition of the lampposts that were considered “highly overpriced.”

The anti-graft office said the cost of each lamppost was expanded to almost 10 times than its actual cost.

Ouano  was also found guilty of grave misconduct.

But since his term as mayor ended in 2007, the anti-graft office ordered that “the penalty imposed upon him be deemed implemented and accordingly reflected in his record of public service.” /Ador Vincent S. Mayol, Reporter