Camarines power coop execs suspended

CAMARINES NORTE, Philippines – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) has placed seven members of the board of directors, including their chairman, and two other officials of the Camarines Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (Canoreco) under 60-day preventive suspension.

In a five-page decision last Wednesday, NEA administrator Edita Bueno suspended Canoreco board chairman Arwin Segundo; directors Cesar Brondia, Domingo Sarmiento, Henry Zaño, Freddie Parale, Alexander Bardon and Elmer Dasco; institutional services department head Efren Belgado; and engineer Henry Sendon, former OIC general manager.

Bueno issued the suspension order after a NEA audit showed that there was allegedly no bidding and evaluation of bids in the construction of a 69-kilovolt line; and the award of the contracts for the installation of two five-MVA substations and the hiring of a security services firm supposedly went to the highest bidders.