Radaza Strikes Again

A PRIVATE foundation has asked the anti-graft office to look into alleged anomalies in the purchase of supposedly overpriced personal computers by the Lapu-Lapu City Government for use in its public high schools.

The Coralpoint Educational Foundation Inc., represented by its founder and president Efrain Pelaez, accused Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza of facilitating the “anomalous” transaction and of making “P17 million tax-free” from it, on the side. Pelaez addressed his complaint to Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol.

Mayor Radaza told Sun.Star Cebu he will answer the accusations in the proper forum.

According to Pelaez, the Lapu-Lapu City Government spent P23,476,500 or about P50,000 each for 470 personal computers (PCs) that, at the time of the purchase, were worth less than half the unit price.

“The actual unit cost could even be less because, as the Commission on Audit (COA) has found out, what was delivered to the schools were PCs of inferior specifications like Celeron instead of the specified Pentium 4 processors with 256 instead of the specified 512 megabytes of memory,” Pelaez said.

He attached the COA report to his letter-complaint to Apostol.

City Hall paid for the computers when City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim served as chairman of the bidding and awards committee (BAC) and Assistant City Attorney Michael Dignos was among the members.

Both officials said if there was indeed a wrong delivery, the BAC would not know about it because its role ends after declaring the winning bidder.

‘No problems’

“Everything was on the level...there were no problems in the bidding procedure,” Lim said. He has been on a two-week leave beginning last Monday, but reported to his office to write his answer to Pelaez’s demand letter for documents related to the City’s expenses during last January’s Asean Summit.

“I’d like to tell the public that everything Mr. Pelaez has been saying has to be taken with the grain of salt because he has a vested interest,” he added, without elaborating.

Pelaez also attached clippings of Sun.Star Cebu’s March 6, 2005 issue that, on page 38, showed the invitation to qualify and bid that the City Government published to guide any interested bidders. Page 21 of that issue also showed how Max Saver Corp. was selling Pentium 4 units for P19,100 only.

Among other annexes, likewise included was a document showing that 60 computers were sent to schools in the islands of Pangan-an and Caubian, although there isn’t any electricity in these areas.

Impleaded in the complaint were Radaza, City Attorney Lim, City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez, Assistant City Engineer Fernando Tagaan, City Budget Officer Victoria Andoy, City Treasurer Elena Pacaldo, Legal Officer Michael Dignos, Maria Guiao of the Procurement Office, and Technical Working Group members Cipriano Flores, Maribeth Sorono, Rogelio Veloso, Sharon Baguio Buenaventura Igot and Jerico Mercado.

Likewise included were Leandro Dante, Ernesto Imbong and Rogaciano Tampos, inspectors at the Office of the City Accountant, Treasurer and General Services Office, respectively; Lapu-Lapu City Schools Superintendent Serena Uy; and one Jennet Valencia, manager of Kein Enterprises and the supplier of the computers.

One day’s work

Based on the complaint, Uy requisitioned 470 computers at P50,000 in a purchase request she accomplished on Feb. 8, 2005.

On the same day, Guiao signed a certification indicating that the prevailing market price of personal computers was indeed P50,000.

Pacaldo allegedly certified on the face of the purchase request that the needed government funds for the transaction were available.

And likewise on the same day, Radaza signed and approved the procurement.

“It is very obvious that the preparation of the purchase request, the fixing of the unit cost estimate and the approval thereof were either hastily done without a thorough and extensive survey of the prices of computers offered by suppliers in Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City and Cebu City, which is a clear case of gross negligence,” Pelaez said.

On March 6 and 12, 2005, the City’s bid committee published its invitation and scheduled the submission of bids and bid documents on March 28.

Only three suppliers—Kein Enterprises, ATX Enterprises and Global Chips Technologies Inc.—submitted bids. The BAC, according to Pelaez, “conveniently disqualified” ATX and Global, making Kein, which bid P23,476,500 for the package, the winning supplier.

‘Reprisal’

Two days after the bidding and the BAC passed a resolution awarding the supply contract to Kein, whose office Pelaez traced to an unmarked apartment in Barangay Apas, Cebu City. The following day, Radaza approved the purchase order and a notice of award.

“The bid of Kein Enterprises of P49,900 per unit for the specified or indicated computers was clearly overpriced as shown by the fact that reputable and prominent computer suppliers in Cebu offered practically similar or better computer packages at a much lesser price,” Pelaez said.

Other than heading the foundation, Pelaez is also the president of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI).

The group is turning out to be the Radaza administration’s most vocal critic, pointing out in various forums reported incidents of corruption and inefficiency within Lapu-Lapu City Hall. Its observers attended its first City Council session yesterday.

Asked why the complaint was lodged in his capacity as the head and representative of the foundation instead of as the MICCI, Pelaez said he wanted to shield the individual MICCI members from possible reprisals from City Hall.

“They are already asking us for a list of our individual members. What for? They already know who the incorporators and the officers are,” he added.

Solo flight

He said not involving the MICCI in the filing of the complaint is also to show the Radaza administration that he isn’t afraid to monitor the City on his own.

“Clearly, there is a conspiracy among Radaza and some of his department heads, and we are really flabbergasted,” Pelaez said in a press conference.

Former General Services Office (GSO) Chief Cleofe Solis was no longer involved in procurement beginning Sept. 11, 2001, but as the chief of GSO, she received the computers based on the remark “as to quantity” from her inspectors. (This meant the number of computers delivered matched the figure in the delivery receipt.)

She welcomed the filing of the complaint. “Ganahan ko ana kay kining tawo nga wala’y sala dili gyod mahadlok (Those who have done no wrong have no cause for fear),” she said, adding she never saw the computers herself and relied only on the reports of her inspectors when she signed the delivery receipts.

Solis is currently the City’s consultant for the solid waste management program. She quit the GSO in July 2005, about five months after the purchase of the computers.

Source: sunstar.com.ph