13 in DPWH vehicle scam sacked

Heads are rolling.

The dismissal of 13 officials and employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways was ordered yesterday by outgoing DPWH Secretary Simeon Datumanong.

The order marked the conclusion of the department’s investigation into a vehicle repair scam involving P182 million.

The scam was exposed in 2001 and entailed fund disbursements for exorbitant, repetitive and "ghost" repairs of some 500 vehicles in the DPWH motor pool. It was said to have started in 1999.

Three other DPWH employees were ordered suspended for six months without pay.

Datumanong will hold a press conference at 8:30 a.m. today to formally announce the results of the probe.

"Until tomorrow, I will not disclose any details about the case," Datumanong told The STAR yesterday.

He said he "found no reason to alter the recommendations of the (investigating) panel."

Reliable sources said the five-member panel recommended the dismissal of the 13 officials and employees and suspension of three others.

Some 20 DPWH personnel were administratively charged after substantial evidence of their guilt was found. Sources said those to be dismissed include bureau and division chiefs.

DPWH sources said the President wants the scam probe’s resolution to be part of the government’s achievements, which she will cite in her next State of the Nation Address in July.

The dismissals and suspensions came after DPWH Undersecretary Edmund Mir retired ahead of schedule, taking a terminal leave on Dec. 27, 2002 – one year ahead of his scheduled retirement.

Mir was accused of failing to detect the anomaly, despite the fact that he was responsible for the department’s equipment. It could not be confirmed whether Mir’s retirement was connected in any way to the scam.

DPWH auditors actually stopped count of the amount of cash disbursed anomalously at P140 million, as detailed in 7,000 vouchers, but the Commission on Audit placed the number of receipts at 9,000, worth P182 million.

Among those implicated in the scam were Undersecretary for Administration Mabini Pablo and Mir. Pablo and Mir were reinstated earlier than the personnel who worked under them and were excluded from the administrative complaint.

Both Pablo and Mir are still facing charges before the Ombudsman of failing to exercise supervision over their staff. Both were ordered by Malacañang to formulate new guidelines to prevent a repeat of the vehicle repair scam.

The DPWH will also abolish within the year its Bureau of Maintenance (BoM) and Bureau of Equipment (BoE) as a result of the scam.

The BoE was one of the offices found responsible for the scam. BoE’s two top officials and three others are currently facing similar dismissal charges before the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) for their involvement in the anomaly.

The abolition, however, would not only be limited to the two DPWH bureaus. It will also affect DPWH personnel performing similar functions in other DPWH offices nationwide, as the process of phasing these bureaus out progresses.

DPWH Undersecretary for Planning Teodoro Encarnacion said the abolition is part of a government-wide reorganization that will remove 14 other government offices to cut costs and streamline the bureaucracy.

A total of 10 repair shop owners, including those from the five shops that cornered many of the DPWH’s repair contracts in 2001, were charged before the Ombudsman. These contractors hardly lost in any of the DPWH biddings in which they participated. The case before the Ombudsman remains pending.

Datumanong ordered an investigation into the anomaly as early as January 2002, after it was reported in newspapers that some P1 million was wasted on vehicle repairs. When a preliminary investigation indicated there was more to the anomaly, Datumanong formed a five-man panel to look into the matter.

The case stagnated for several months. The STAR later came up with a report that three members of the five-member panel were involved in the anomaly: Director for Comptrollership Emily Tanquintic, legal division chief Abraham Divina and BoE chief Oscar Abundo.

Tanquintic, Divina and Abundo now face criminal charges before the Office of the Ombudsman and administrative charges before the PAGC.

Another DPWH probe the President wants resolved before her Sona at the opening of Congress in January is investigation into the billion-peso losses incurred by the DPWH due to 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 last year to complete the investigation into both scams.

The hearings at the PAGC and the Ombudsman have just begun, with five of the appointed DPWH executives charged 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 included DPWH Administrative Manpower and Management Service director Burt Favorito, Tanquintic, Divina, Arias, 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 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 further 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 added that 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 failed to exercise prudence 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 would have contained individual equipment profiles, which record repairs and purchases of spare parts and movements of vehicles, the PAGC said.

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