DPWH chief to decide fate of charged officials

Will there be fireworks?

The fate of over 20 Department of Public Works and Highways officials and personnel involved in the 2001 vehicle scam that cost taxpayers P182 million is set to be decided by DPWH Secretary Simeon Datumanong soon, following the official closing of the investigation into the scandal last week.

The DPWH panel conducting administrative hearings on the case completed its proceedings last Dec. 20 with the issuance of a resolution expected soon. The resolution will contain the panel’s recommended sanctions against the DPWH officials and personnel involved in the scam – including possible dismissal from government service.

Datumanong will have the last say on the penalties that will be imposed on the persons found guilty of involvement in the scam, and is not expected to go easy on these DPWH officials and employees – upon instructions from Malacañang.

"The President wants the DPWH vehicle repair scam resolution to be in her State of the Nation Address (Sona) as part of her administration’s list of accomplishments against corruption, so the penalties could be harsh," a STAR informant in the DPWH said.

Another DPWH anomaly the President wants resolved before her Sona speech at the opening of Congress in January are the billion-peso losses incurred by the DPWH because of irregularities regarding the government’s appropriation and payment of road rights-of-way.

In earlier interviews, Datumanong confirmed that Malacañang had given him until the end of December to complete the investigations into both scams.

Besides the DPWH officials and personnel who were administratively charged for the vehicle repair scam, five more presidential appointees assigned to the public works department are facing separate administrative sanctions before the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

All of those so charged, including DPWH Undersecretaries Edmund Mir and Mabini Pablo, are also facing plunder and other charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The hearings at the PAGC and the Ombudsman have just begun. The vehicle repair scam involves exorbitant, ghost and repetitive repairs of some 500 DPWH service vehicles. The PAGC’s initial study of the vehicle repair scam paper trail of manipulated repair vouchers reached P140 million, covering 7,000 vouchers. The Commission on Audit (COA) pegged the actual money lost at P182 million, as covered by 9,000 tampered vouchers. The anomaly began in 1999.

The PAGC has formally charged the five appointed executives of the DPWH with violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) and the Code of Conduct for Public Officials and Employees (RA 6713).

Those named in the charge sheet were: DPWH Administrative Manpower and Management Service director Burt Favorito; Comptrollership and Financial Management Service director Emily Tanquintic; director Abraham Divina Jr.; Bureau of Equipment director Florendo Arias; Legal Service director Oscar Abundo and other John and Jane Does, some of whom are presidential appointees.

Based on the formal charge, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, the officials charged with violating the anti-graft and code of conduct laws "have openly committed serious misconduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service."

"(The) respondents, together with other employees of the DPWH, who are non-presidential appointees, and under their control and supervision, unlawfully and knowingly perpetrated acts in violation of Section 20 of the General Appropriations Act of (fiscal year) 2000 by facilitating the alleged anomalous emergency repairs of several DPWH motor vehicles for fiscal year 2000-2001 from wrong fund source, an offense constituting illegal expenditure," the PAGC said in the charge sheet.

The PAGC said that despite personal knowledge that the end-users of the vehicles did not request, sign or certify their request for supplies and equipment (RSE) forms required for such expenditures, the officials included in the charge sheet went on to facilitate the disbursement of funds for vehicle repairs.

The PAGC said Arias and Favorito approved various RSEs and requests of obligation and Allotment (ROAs) for the repair of certain vehicles.

Tanquintic, the PAGC said, counter-signed the checks made out to pay for the purported repairs and replacement of damaged vehicle parts despite the fact that the supporting documents attached to the requests were dubious or anomalous.

According to the PAGC, Tanquintic, being the director of the DPWH CFMS, failed to exercise prudence in the management and control of the government’s financial resources by failing to institute the necessary control measures to prevent financial losses on the part of the government.

Divina, meanwhile, failed to institute the necessary management monitoring and control systems in the preparation and maintenance of equipment ledgers for each vehicle that could have contained individual equipment profiles, which record repairs and purchases of spare parts and movement of vehicles, the PAGC said.

The commission added that, for only three vehicles, the DPWH authorized and paid a total of P832,140 for repairs and replacement parts, as indicated in only 34 vouchers.