SBGFC employees seek ouster of boss for `incompetence'

Concerned officials and employees of the Small Business Guarantee and Finance Corp. (SBGFC) are appealing to President Estrada for the immediate ouster of their boss, Jose Orosa, "before our agency collapses beyond repair."

At the very least, they stressed that Orosa, chairman and president of SBGFC, should voluntarily resign "to save the Chief Executive from the embarrassment of having appointed an unqualified manager to head the agency."

The group cited as grounds for Orosa's removal alleged "incompetence, arrogance, petty despotism and utter disregard of the rules and regulations governing SBGFC operations in accommodating loan applications from his friends and close allies."

In an open letter obtained by The STAR, the group also charged that during the first fiscal year of Orosa's administration covering the period October 1998 to October 1999, SBGFC's earnings plummeted by nearly 50 percent, or from P64.05 million to only P37.02 million.

"This dismal performance is attributed to Mr. Orosa's management ineptitude, unclear vision, disregard of government rules and regulations, blind reliance on an incompetent officer and lack of general direction," the letter stated.

"The ongoing revamp in the Cabinet is a perfect opportunity to replace Mr. Orosa with somebody who has a managerial acumen, clarity of purpose, vision and determination needed for the attainment of SBGFC's corporate mission as mandated by its character," a spokesman for the group said.

The source, who requested anonymity, also said they are pressing for a thorough investigation "that would uncover his wrongdoing."

"It seems that he would like to run the SBGFC the way he ran his previous companies, rather unsuccessfully," they said, adding that Orosa's firms shut down mainly due to labor problems.

The manifesto also accused Orosa of whimsically changing policies and guidelines to the prejudice of SBGFC operations. "This makes the agency's programs unattractive and unsalable causing a drastic decline in the company's performance and profits."

The sources also likened their agency to a ship aimlessly drifting in the ocean and its crew confused because its skipper does not give any directions.

They also charged that Orosa arbitrarily approved loan applications by friends in the Christian born-again movement in "blatant" disregard of the rules and tossing out findings and recommendations by his technical staff for the disapproval of the applications. "This is a clear indication of abuse of authority," they said.

Among such allegedly questionable loans were the P1.2 million extended to Deeper Life Foundation, a P500,000-assistance to Cake Greetings Corp., P10 million in unsecured loan guarantee to Issho Gengki, P20 million to TML Garments Inc. which was shut down in 1996, and another P20 million to Equity Infusion Water Club Inc.

On the other hand, Orosa allegedly denied certain loan applications simply because he does not personally know the proponent.

Orosa also reportedly violated the principle of conflict of interest by insisting on publishing the SBGFC annual report using the facilities of a family-owned firm Studio Five.

"The fee was not collected because of legal infirmity, but just the same, there was still conflict of interest and this again was a clear violation of the code of conduct of public officials," the sources pointed out.

"Now is the time to replace Mr. Jose S. Orosa," the manifesto stated.

The SBGFC was created by the government in January 1991 through the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises with a capital stock of P5 billion, of which P1 billion was subscribed. On Nov. 26, 1998, Mr. Estrada directed the Social Security System and the Land Bank of the Philippines to infuse into SBGFC additional capital amounting to P660 million, raising its subscribed and paid up capital to P1.6 billion.