Garcia hits Capitol's P80M consultants' fee for 2 projects

CEBU, Philippines - Lawyer Winston Garcia has questioned the Capitol's procurement of consultancy services amounting to P80 million for two projects which he described as "unnecessary" and "Napoles-type scam."

He urged the provincial government to justify the P57-million consultancy services for the preparation of detailed architectural and engineering plans for the proposed 12-story building at the Capitol compound, and another P26-million for the development of disaster risk reduction-climate change adaptation and contingency plans.

He believes that there is no need for the Capitol to acquire consultancy services for the high-rise building because the job is already covered under the Provincial Engineering Office.

"We have Provincial Engineering Office. Unya nganu nga di man nato gamiton ang Provincial Engineering Office para unta mohimo niining butanga?" he said.

He said the P57 million would also mean that the Capitol is constructing a P800 million structure. Citing the standards on computing the architect's fee based on percentage of the construction cost of the building, Garcia said the P57 million consultancy fee represents the seven percent of the project cost, which means that the proposed building would actually cost P800 million.

"If you're consultancy services is P57 million, that's normally seven percent of the construction cost... This is absolutely unnecessary and we have a lot of other projects that we could take off other than this  P800 million white elephant. This P57 million is scandalous by itself but it also mirrors another scandal which is the construction of a P800 million white elephant in the Capitol compound," he added.

He said the hundreds of millions to be spent to the high-rise structure should have been poured to the improvement of province-run hospitals and its equipment.

The proposed 12-story structure would be a replacement of the old Bureau of Agriculture extension (Baex) building, which has been standing idled and deemed unusable after it suffered damage from the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 2013.

The Baex building used to house the offices of the Provincial Auditor, Provincial Women's Commission, Provincial Tourism, and the Department of Interior and Local Government-Cebu.

The Capitol has set aside at least P50 million in its budget this year for the construction of the building, which would have both public and commercial purposes.

Capitol earlier posted on its website a request for Expression of Interest for the consultancy services.  The BAC will draw up the short list of consultants from those who have submitted eligibility documents and Expression of Interest and have been determined as eligible in accordance with the provisions of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the "Government Procurement Reform Act," and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

The short list will consist of five prospective bidders who will be entitled to submit bids.

As to the development of the disaster risk reduction-climate change adaptation and contingency plans, Garcia said its P26 million consultancy services is a "scam" since it did not specify the qualifications of the would-be consultants.

He noted that there is a Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office which is supposed to work on the plans.

He further asked Capitol to stop the awarding of the contract for consultancy services, otherwise he would bring the matter to the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman.

He suspected that the huge amount for the consultancy services, as well as the alleged P800 million 12-story building, would be used by the Capitol for campaign logistics in 2016 elections.

"Stop these projects. I urged the current administration to stop defrauding the government," he said.

Garcia is running against Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III in the 2016 gubernatorial race. (FREEMAN)