The Commission on Audit, after completing a thorough investigation, affirmed an earlier recommendation of an audit team detailed at Energy Regulatory Commission that the conduct of a fraud audit on a planned audio-visual presentation is not necessary because no contract was ever consummated nor any government funds disbursed for the project.
Noroden Mira-Ato, audit team leader at ERC’s office of the auditor, informed ERC officer-in-charge and commissioner Alfredo Non of this determination in a letter dated Aug. 24.
“The Commission Proper, Commission on Audit, has approved the recommendation of the Fraud Audit Office that the conduct of fraud audit is not necessary at this time,” Mira-Ato said in the letter.
The letter revealed that CoA director Bresilo Sabaldan, who is in charge of FAO’s special services sector, and director Nilda Plaras, COA commission secretary, transmitted the recommendation to the Commission Proper in a memo dated June 28.
“It is stated in the Fraud Case Evaluation Report dated March 21, 2017, as approved by director Sabaldan, that ‘the contract was not consummated, no disbursement of public funds was made in this particular case and will not cause detriment to the government,’ hence, they believe that the fraud audit is not necessary for the time being,” Mira-Ato said in the letter.
ERC chairman and chief executive Jose Vicente Salazar requested the CoA to conduct an investigation on claims made by the late Francisco Jose Villa Jr., former ERC director and chairman of the agency’s bids and awards committee of bid rigging. The suicide of Villa prompted a congressional inquiry.
Villa’s claim of bid rigging in the AVP project is the root of vigorous attempts from interested groups to unseat Salazar. Salaza is serving a four-month suspension for an insubordination case levied against him by the Office of the Executive Secretary.
Salazar disputed the suspension for being flimsy and contrary to due process as provided by law.