Mayor Garcia open to audit of traffic system

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia may have welcomed the City Council’s proposal for a fraud audit on the contracts being entered into relative to the purchase of the Digital Traffic System, but he expressed concerns about the complaint of its contractor due to the unreleased payment for its Phase 2.

Yesterday, Garcia expressed openness to the council’s request to the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct a fraud audit on the city’s Digital Traffic System project, particularly on the contracts with the contractor.

This is after the alleged “anomalies” behind the traffic system’s Phases 1 and 2 came to light following the privilege speech delivered by Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, who highlighted the lack of an intelligent feature that the system is supposed to have.

She also noted the lack of council resolution to authorize then Mayor Edgardo Labella or even former Cebu City administrator, Atty. Floro Casas Jr., to sign the construction agreement on behalf of the city. Pesquera, a lawyer herself, said that this means that the contract in itself is invalid.

Circling to the time of transactions, Pesquera said that a resolution from the Bids and Awards Committee awarding the Digital Traffic System to Triune Electronics Systems Inc., and Cylix Tech Inc. was approved last September 1, 2020, through a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA).

Pesquera noted that the JVA and the award were signed by Casas during the administration of the late Mayor Labella.

Garcia said that he has yet to communicate with COA if they are willing to undertake the fraud audit to assess the validity of Casas’ authorization.

He, however, admitted that as time goes by, he has reservations on the matter since there is a complaint lodged before the Office of Ombudsman on unreleased payment for the contractor of the Digital Traffic System’s Phase 2.

It was also reported that the council also approved a resolution urging Mayor Garcia to withhold the payment of the project's Phase 2 until the result of the fraud audit will come out.

“Ang supplier nisuwat na sa ombudman’s office so anytime now the Ombudsman will make their own investigation, so that’s why gusto ko nga this issue will be solved as soon as possible,” said Garcia.

Garcia previously announced that a task force will be created to look into the issues hounding the city’s Digital Traffic System. Currently, Garcia said that the task force has an ongoing investigation for both phases.

“Ila g’yung gitan-aw ang tanang mga equipment nga nakasuwat didto sa terms of reference gipaihap pila ka cameras ang na deliver…all of those things iya g’yung gitan-aw so it will take longer than usual,” said Garcia.

He also said it is urgent to iron out these issues to utilize the equipment particularly the CCTV cameras which the police have come to rely on for their investigations.

He said in the absence of payment from the supplier, the latter will not allow the utilization of their equipment.

“So mao nga I want this solved as soonest as the possible time not only that it will help our traffic but it will also help our peace and order,” said Garcia.

Pesquera also reported that in the records of the Cebu City Accounting Office there is only 8% left of the contract price that has yet to be released. Further, Pesquera said that Casas has also signed the Construction Agreement with Cylix Technologies Inc. for the Digital Traffic System Phase 2 with a project cost of more than ?238 million.

Despite this, the purchase of Phase 3 of the Digital Traffic System is being included in the ?17-billion annual budget for the 2025 fiscal year. This year, the executive branch proposed ?250 million in funding for its purchase.

Garcia said it was an executive decision to which he added a “logical and reasonable” request as long as the issues on Phases 1 and 2 will be ironed out. — (FREEMAN)