THE Office of the Ombudsman ordered on Thursday the dismissal from service of local officials of Mayantoc, Tarlac for administrative liability of grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty.
Those dismissed from the service were ex-mayor Tito Razalan, ex-engineer Rodolfo Corpuz, ex-treasurer Nilda Salazar, ex-budget officer Florence Bueno and ex-administrative officer Marilene Bedania.
Graft probers uncovered irregularities that tainted the P23-million Mayantoc Memorial Park project undertaken in 2009.
Substantial regulations on procurement were not followed by the respondents, such as the lack of a pre-procurement conference and non-posting of the invitation to bid, and that bid documents were not paid by the bidders despite its announcement that bid documents were available upon payment of P5,000.
Other violations were the non-invitation of observers to join the procurement activities and acceptance of underpayment of performance and warranty securities by the winning contractor, JQG Construction.
In a consolidated decision, the Ombudsman said that “records show that Corpuz and Razalan facilitated the release of the payment amounting to P23,048,230.15 to JQG Construction by issuing a certificate of project acceptance and certificate of project completion which was found to be incomplete and inoperational.”
Moreover, Razalan approved and instructed the release of payments to the contractor without securing the certification of the municipal accountant as to the completeness of the supporting documents.
“The dismissal order carries the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits and bar from taking the civil service examination,” the Ombudsman's decision read.
“In case of separation from the service, the penalty is convertible to a fine equivalent to respondent’s one-year salary.”
