P261M omitted from CICC building cost?

Businessman Crisologo Saavedra has accused Governor Gwendolyn Garcia of not being truthful in accounting for the total expenses for the Cebu International Convention Center project.

Saavedra, who exposed alleged anomalies in various government projects during Cebu''s hosting of the 12th ASEAN summit, yesterday presented another set of documents to belie Garcia''s claim that the provincial government did not overspend for the project but rather was able to save money having spent only P581 million out of the total P637 million approved budget.

Saavedra said that Garcia "misrepresented" her presentation last May 3 when she gave the accounting of the total project cost because there was P261 million that she did include in her presentation.

Saavedra showed the media a copy of a billing document that he claimed to have acquired from the Provincial Engineer''s Office.

In the document, WT Construction, billed the provincial government P261,217,866, which covered for the P85,265,407 electrical and plumbing works and P175,951,478 site development, structural, civil and architectural works.

"Purposely she has hidden these expenses," Saavedra said.

Saavedra said that this amount was not presented by Garcia during her presentation because there was allegedly no contract to support it. He surmised that it was just an internal arrangement between Garcia and the contractor.

Adding the amount that the governor has reported to the P261 million that he recently discovered, Saavedra said that the CICC actually cost as much as P842 million or an excess of P205 million from the P637 approved budget.

Although, Saavedra admitted that the contractor''s claim maybe just, but he said it is illegal because it has no contract and has no allocation.

"They don''t have funding for this but they spent it," Saavedra told reporters.

He surmised that Garcia''s plan may have been to recover the expenses from another contract that will make it appear as an improvement for the CICC.

"She cannot be trusted anymore," Saavedra said.

Saavedra submitted the additional documents to the Office of the Ombudsman with a request to acting deputy Ombudsman-Visayas Virginia Palanca Santiago to issue a stop payment order against the provincial government.

While Saavedra admitted that they cannot hold the governor accountable for the P261 million because there was no contract and payment has not been made, his purpose of revealing it to the public is to create awareness.

Saavedra also denied insinuations that his move is politically motivated. - Fred P. Languido/BRP