NEA sacks erring Zambo co-op officials

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has issued a dismissal order and ordered the forfeiture of benefits against the manager and majority of the board of directors of a local electric cooperative here for repeated violation and non-compliance of NEA issuance and regulations.

Those ordered sacked from their position were Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) general manager Reinerio Ramos; board of directors Rolando Gregorio, Tito Espiritusanto, Leonir Toribio, Aida Loong, Ronald Maravilla, Emias Alviar, Alexis Ortega, and Noel Tarrazona.

In an eight-page decision issued May 25 that was furnished to Mayor Celso Lobregat and the Zamcelco on Tuesday, the NEA ordered the perpetual disqualification of the said officials from holding office in any rural electric cooperative pursuant to the NEA rules and procedure as a result of the removal order.

Lobregat said Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, NEA chairman, and the members of the board, signed the order and decision, which takes effect immediately.

NEA engineer Jesus Castro, who was designated project supervisor following the investigation early this year, was named as the acting manager.

The decision stemmed from the request of Lobregat for the NEA to conduct an investigation and audit on the local electric cooperative due to mounting complaints of alleged anomalous transaction while the city have been frequently experiencing power outage.

The electric cooperative audit department found seven audit findings of Zamcelco as not fully substantiated covering the period from Sept. 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

This includes the negotiated purchase of a 10 MVA substation amounting to P33-million but was only pegged based on NEA price index at P24.46 million.

The acquisition of 34 vehicles, 10 of which were considered as luxury vehicles, acquisition of lot amounting to P2.4 million, implementation of capital expenditure project without Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approval, love fund drive for each of the board and manager amounting to P20,000 each, and the acquisition of a second hand music band equipment that cost P1.2 million.

The local business sector is considering filing criminal charges against the cooperative officials involved since only administrative sanctions were slapped by the NEA.