Consolacion Mayor Avelino Gungob repudiated the reported anomalies in road projects last year, describing the contents of the report as hearsay and a belated propaganda of his political enemies.
The report, contained in the annual audit of the Commission on Audit, stated that over P38 million of the more than P43 million worth of road projects, during his preceding administration, were allegedly anomalous.
The mayor, in an interview over DyLA radio, said he has not received a copy of this COA report but he suspected that this could have been possibly orchestrated by his political opponents. “Wa ko kadawat ana,” he said.
State auditors reported that the P38.7 million road projects in Consolacion lacked the necessary documents making it difficult for them to verify the real cost and the actual status of these projects.
The program of works provided the details and other specifications of the project, which was part of the over P48 million that the municipal government spent last year.
Gungob insisted that COA did not even call him to an exit conference, which is done before the annual audit report is made final.
He added that the report was supposed to be his opponents’ propaganda material in the last May 14 elections but it came rather late because he has been re-elected already to his final term as Consolacion mayor.
Gungob said that there was no truth to the report that the road projects lacked the required program of works. He said these had passed the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“Hearsay na siya. Nganong kwestiyonon man na nila nga that was approved by Land Bank?” he said.
He explained that the projects were funded through a loan that the municipal government obtained from the bank. The money did not pass through him anymore because it was the bank that paid the contractors directly, he said.
The mayor however failed to clarify if he could have violated a law in letting the bank pay the money directly to the project contractor.
A section of Rule V of the implementing rules and regulations of the Electronic Procurement Law provides that the procuring agency shall be the one to pay the contractor, and not the bank that releases the loan to the agency. — Fred P. Languido/RAE