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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. is incompetent, a former director claimed.
Roy Cordova of Barangay Mansilingan filed an administrative complaint at the National Electrification Administration seeking Lagarde’s removal.
Lagarde’s “gross incompetence” and “lack of knowledge in running an electric cooperative” has exposed Ceneco to systems losses amounting to P186 million from 2012 to 2014, said Cordova.
This resulted in Ceneco being categorized by the NEA as “Yellow C” in 2014, a category “next to an ailing cooperative,” he said in his complaint dated Sept. 9, 2016.
Lagarde was not available for comment as of this writing. He was not replying to text messages. Panay News tried to call him, but his mobile phone number cannot be reached.
Cordova claimed the bucket truck Lagarde bought from the United States in 2009 for P40 million has not been used and is now “depreciating at the backyard of the Ceneco compound.”
“Such act constitutes gross neglect of duty, gross incompetence and conduct prejudicial to the interest of Ceneco and consumer-members,” he said.
In 2014, Lagarde also entered into a donation agreement with Busong, a Korean company affiliated with the Korean Electric Power Corp., involving power substation equipment and transformers but spent about P40 million in freight and other charges, Cordova claimed.
Cordova also accused Lagarde of selling scrap materials to Ceneco bidders in 2013 and receiving salary and allowances “far from what was approved by the NEA” from 2009 to 2014.
Also from 2009 to 2014, Lagarde was assigned a “fleet card” that can be used to withdraw fuel from the oil company Shell, he said.
All the fuel withdrawals were done in Luzon; Lagarde “misappropriated” the fuel and “enriched himself at the expense of Ceneco,” claimed Cordova.
In his complaint, Cordova prayed that a subpoena be issued to direct the Ceneco’s Internal Audit Division to submit all pertinent records related to his claims.
He also asked the NEA to place Lagarde under preventive suspension pending investigation into his complaint./PN
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