DENR chief faces graft raps before PAGC

Barely relishing his post after a tedious battle for confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez is now facing graft charges before the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

An employees union at the department filed on Wednesday a complaint against Alvarez for reportedly hiring an "excessive" number of consultants.

Alvarez dismissed the accusation as "baseless," adding it was an "old story" already used by the union in opposing his confirmation.

"Well, that’s an objection to me during the confirmation proceedings at the CA, which is past overdue and, at this point in time, passé," he said.

Alvarez said the number of consultants was "not accurate" and that they "performed specific functions."

"Those were not hired all year round. Some were hired for two months, three months, for only a period of time," he said. "The consultants were hired for foreign-funded projects, which were necessary or required for the success of the projects."

Julie Gorospe Ibuan, president of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Employees Union, said the complaint was filed after PAGC chairman Dario Rama informed them that Malacañang endorsed it for "immediate investigation."

According to her, Alvarez hired a total of 195 consultants as of last June, although government agencies are limited to hiring up to only 13 by the Department of Budget and Management to cut costs.

Altogether, the DENR pays the consultants a total of P4.67 million in fees, Ibuan said, adding that the department paid a total of P7.8 million for the second quarter of the year alone.

"When you sum up their fees for 12 months, these would amount to about P56 million – a huge unnecessary expenditure in the face of the current deficit problem of the government," she said.

The number of consultants was first noted in July by the department’s chief accountant Elvira Caparas, who issued a memorandum calling the attention of Alvarez and other officials.

She also noted in her memorandum that contract services shall only be issued when the department is to "undertake a specific work or job requiring special or technical skills and to highly skilled scientific and technical personnel not available in the agency, and that no contract of services shall be issued to non-technical personnel, whose duties and positions are administrative in nature."

With that, she requested that the number of consultants be reduced and the department utilize its own personnel to do the jobs the consultants were hired for.

"In hiring the aforesaid 195 consultants, which can be categorized as excessive, anomalous, and illegal by any standards, Secretary Alvarez has gravely abused his authority, dishonored, offensively defied and violated (various memorandum circulars providing conditions for hiring consultants)," Ibuan stated in the complaint.

Among those allegedly hired by Alvarez were 24 lawyers, five media consultants, and 60 non-technical personnel such as drivers, secretaries, reproduction machine operators, and administrative support personnel.

Ibuan said Alvarez had no need to hire additional lawyers because the department’s legal department has enough.

Ibuan also accused Alvarez of harassing the union for opposing his confirmation by reassigning four members to provincial posts. Denying the charge, Alvarez said the reassignments were recommended by their respective superiors. — With Jose Rodel Clapano