Sitoy: Money wasted on CICC due to Davide’s “incompetence”

CEBU, Philippines – Provincial Board Member Arleigh Jay Sitoy has blamed the “incompetence and indecision” of the present administration of Governor Hilario Davide III as the cause of wastage of money spent for the Cebu International Convention Center.

Sitoy said nobody was able to prove the overpricing of the CICC as alleged, because disaster, which destroyed the structure, had overtaken the investigation.

More importantly, Sitoy pointed out that before the earthquake on October 15, 2013, nobody took charge of the CICC fast enough for it to function well.

“Worse, nobody dared to follow up with the Ombudsman so as to quickly determine culpabilities,” Sitoy said.

He also criticized the consultancy services of P57 million for the proposed 12-storey disaster preparedness building.

Sitoy recalled Provincial Administrator Atty. Mark Tolentino, the chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee, during the PB session as saying that he did not know the total cost of the project.

According to engineers, Sitoy said, the consultancy for government projects is about six percent of the total cost.

“If we try to extrapolate the P57 million, the cost of the building will be far more expensive than the CICC,” he said.

The consultancy fee for CICC was only P16.8 million.

“Now the question is: which is more wasteful in the use of public funds?” Sitoy asked.

Earlier, One Cebu gubernatorial candidate Winston Garcia has questioned the Capitol’s procurement of consultancy services amounting to P80 million for two projects which he described as “unnecessary” and “Napoles-type scam.”

He urged the provincial government to justify the P57 million consultancy services for the preparation of detailed architectural and engineering plans for the proposed 12-story building at the Capitol compound, and another P26 million for the development of disaster risk reduction-climate change adaptation and contingency plans.

Garcia said the P57 million would also mean that the Capitol is constructing a P800-million structure. Citing the standards on computing the architect’s fee based on percentage of the construction cost of the building, Garcia said the P57 million consultancy fee represents the seven percent of the project cost, which means that the proposed building would actually cost P800 million.

As to the development of the disaster risk reduction-climate change adaptation and contingency plans, Garcia said its P26 million consultancy services is a “scam” since it did not specify the qualifications of the would-be consultants.

He noted that there is a Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office which is supposed to work on the plans.

He suspected that the huge amount for the consultancy services, as well as the alleged P800 million 12-storey building, would be used by the Capitol for campaign logistics in 2016 elections. — Gregg M. Rubio/NSA (FREEMAN)