The Commission on Audit has directed its fraud audit office to conduct a special audit on the supposed irregularities in connection with six bridge projects awarded from 1994 to 2004, with increased contract costs from as low as 9 percent to as high as 342 percent.
CoA chairman Michael Aguinaldo, along with commissioners Jose Fabia and Roland Pondoc, issued an order to look into the involvement of some Department of Public Works and Highways officials in jacking up the cost of the projects as well as the approval of millions of pesos in incentive bonuses to the contractor.
State auditors were prompted to investigate after the contractor, the Ciriaco Corp., filed a claim for payment of a P158.56-million incentive bonus, plus interest computed at 6 percent per year for finishing the projects ahead of time.
The projects cited in the claim were the Embarcadero bridge in Pangasinan’s Mangaldan; Don Mariano Marcos bridge in Abra’s Abra-Kalinga Road; Taytay or Barkadahan bridge in Rizal’s Taytay; Quintos bridge in Pangasinan’s Dagupan City; Hector Mendoza bridge in Pangasinan’s Agno River; and Domalandan Bridge in Pangasinan’s Lingayen.
The contractor said its claim was uncontested and endorsed by the directors of the DPWH, recommended for payment by the DPWH-Extraordinary Claims Review Committee, and “approved by the DPWH Secretary.”
It told CoA that it even wrote the Department of Budget and Management for the release of funds.
On Feb. 22, 2016, Ciriaco Corp. sent DPWH a consolidated billing of P158,560,671.80 representing incentive bonuses for all six projects.
In an April 18, 2016 letter, then Public Works secretary Rogelio Singson advised the contractor to file a money claim with CoA.
In a June 14 nine-page decision, CoA’s Commission Proper rejected the DPWH’s approval and endorsements.
“This Commission in not bound by the findings, rulings, or approvals of money claims by other government agencies or as in this case, by the directors, ECRC, and Secretaries of the DBM and the DPWH. The DPWH has no power to approve money claims…these claims fall within the power of this Commission to adjudicate,” the resolution read.
The commission refused to order the payment for the contractor.
“In view of the significant increases in the amounts of the revised contracts, the approval of the DPWH of the claim for incentive bonus, and the request by the DPWH officials from the DBM for funds even before petitioner filed his money claim with the CoA, and other violation of existing rules and regulations, the Fraud Audit Office… is directed to conduct a special audit on the bridge projects,” the order stated.