Auditors: Mandaue City bought more lamppost parts than what were needed

STATE auditors has asked the Mandaue City government to inspect and evaluate existing lampposts in the city to know the actual needs of the city to save on funds.

The auditors’ recommendation came after they found out that the Mandaue City government bought more than what were needed in its P6.5 million purchase of 700 sodium lamppost sets, leaving some of the parts to be left outside the stockroom.

The Commission on Audit auditors said that Mandaue City records showed 565 sodium lamp brackets were issued to various offices and barangays leaving behind 135 unused brackets.

But Jaime Basubas, Department of General Services’property officer, said the Mandaue City government saved from the unused brackets.

Basubas told Cebu Daily News that some brackets were still strong enough and so they didn’t replace them with the new brackets.

He also said that the brackets were rust proof.

But the auditors also said that four of the 135 brackets were missing.

And the 131 brackets were found outside the stockroom in sitio Tribunal, barangay Centro, just adjacent to Mandaue City District hospital.

The auditors said in their report that the brackets were susceptible to loss and exposed to all kinds of weather.

They recommended that the these should be placed inside the stockroom.

However, Amedello Saladaga, stock clerk of the Department of General Services of Mandaue City, said that he was indeed verbally instructed by property officer, Oscar Dimay, to place the brackets inside the ground floor of the two story stockroom.

Saladaga said the brackets were heavy and he feared that if they would be placed inside the stockroom foundation might collapse.

On the four missing brackets, the auditors asked that an investigation should be conducted and those responsible be sanctioned. /Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos