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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Saturday, September 2, 2017
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ILOILO – Former provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada and four provincial capitol officials were accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in the Sandiganbayan relative to a laptop purchase during the administration of the late Gov. Niel Tupas Sr.
The four other officials were General Services Office head Ramie Salcedo, Provincial Health Officer Patricia Grace Trabado, Administrative Officer III Anny Baldemor, and Computer Maintenance Technologist II Edgar P. Piansay. They were then members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the provincial government.
The Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office (FIO)-initiated complaint alleged that the respondents gave unwarranted benefits, preference or undue advantage to supplier Seven Seven Trading owned by Cristina Te.
The FIO also included Te and Rosarie San Luis, nutrition coordinator / end-user representative of the Provincial Health Office (PHO).
In October 2008, then State Auditor Hayde Pasuelo audited, among others, the procurement of a laptop computer (Acer Aspire) worth P99,000 from Seven Seven Trading.
The supplier, however, delivered Acer Travelmate, not Acer Aspire as specified in the request/order.
A price verification showed Acer Travelmate to cost only P59,000; there was thus an overprice of P39,100, according to the FIO.
A further check showed that Seven Seven Trading mainly dealt with computer ink, not laptop computers.
On Dec. 2, 2008, the Commission on Audit (COA) issued a Notice of Disallowance.
It subsequently issued a Notice of Settlement of Disallowance dated Oct. 14, 2011. The supplier returned the payment, and this addressed the civil administrative accountability. However, the criminal aspect of the case remained, according to the FIO.
The respondents denied any criminal responsibility.
The Ombudsman believed the BAC members acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.
They considered only a single bidder (Seven Seven Trading) which principally dealt with computer inks, not laptops, according to the Ombudsman.
The bidder also delivered a laptop unit different the purchase request or order, it added.
The Ombudsman said the respondents knew about the difference yet proceeded with the procurement, resulting to an overprice.
The subsequent refund validated the irregularity, it added.
The Ombudsman, however, noted a dearth of evidence to show that the supplier conspired with the public respondents. Its return of the payment alone cannot establish conspiracy, it stressed.
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman said the public respondents could not benefit from the supplier’s return of payment because such only came after the fact and the irregularity had already been committed.
“The public respondents clearly failed to comply with the law on public procurement and the manual on government accounting and auditing. In the process, they failed to protect the interest of the government,” according to the Ombudsman.
Mejorada dismissed the graft complaint as “a machination of Senator (Franklin) Drilon with the help of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.”
“Drilon wants to destroy my credibility and divert the people’s minds from his gargantuan corruption. They want to make life difficult for me. But I am unfazed. I will gain more strength and energy to carry on my fight against Drilon’s corruption,” he said.
Mejorada is a critic of the Ilonggo senator.
The former provincial administrator also claimed “Ombudsman Morales distorted the facts just so she could grant Drilon’s wish to persecute me. She is the same Ombudsman Morales who twisted the truth to dismiss the plunder in the Iloilo Convention Center anomaly.”
According to Mejorada he will post bail and is ready to defend himself./PN
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