JUNE 9, 2013 SUNDAY TAGBILARAN CITY ____________________________________________________ Mayor ‘offers self’ to COA graft probe This one would perhaps qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records. A municipal mayor has requested the Commission on Audit, offering herself for an audit investigation regarding projects implemented since she assumed office in 2007. Guindulman Mayor Ma. Fe Añana-Piezas, in her letter to COA-7 Regional Director Sabiniano Cabatuan, challenged state auditors to send their best people to do the investigation, adding an assurance that she will instruct all employees to cooperate with the audit team. “I will at that time take a leave of absence for how many days this investigation would take you, to make sure that everything will be above board,” Mayor Piezas told the COA. In the just concluded May 13 synchronized local and national elections, Mayor Piezas was reelected for her third and last term. She won with a landslide margin over her fiercest rival, Edgar Sarabosing, who was her former executive assistant. Sarabosing, in his campaign rallies, waved a copy of the COA Annual Audit Report 2008-2009 for the Municipality of Guindulman, which detailed alleged anomalies in projects involving multi-million pesos. The COA findings and recommendations pointed to a questionable Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract for the public market which was later on cancelled, after the local government paid the contractor P19.8M for his alleged accomplished portion of the market building. COA, however, observed that the paid amount was not based from an independent appraisal and was made despite the lack of required documents. At the time, the subject contractor was not listed as among the accredited member of the Bohol Builders and Contractors Association but carried the name TUTOR HARDWARE. COA said those who would undertake BOT contracts should su7bmit financial statements and must have previous track records in built-operate-transfer projects. Another item in the COA report was the construction of a P2.7M slaughterhouse which was also awarded to the same contractor in a process which was branded in the COA report as allegedly a “bogus bidding”. After the May 13 elections, when all issues were expected to have died down, a certain Ramon Castro, town resident and Chairman of the Board of a water service cooperative (GUINBUWASSCO) wrote a letter to the COA Regional Office inquiring if an investigation or case has been filed against Mayor Piezas. Castro, in his letter said “he was alarmed and amazed over the COA report that the town mayor, a woman at that, was reported to have committed graft and corruption”. He added that the audit report confirms the suspicion of anomalies in another government transaction, - a purchase of a 3.8 hectare lot intended for a cemetery project. “Despite of the protest filed by the water service cooperative and petition of water consumers citing that the proposed site will affect the source of potable water supply, Mayor Piezas proceeded to purchase the 3.8 hectare agricultural land at a price of P150 per square meter. The purchase was also made despite existing prohibition, the lot being classified as agricultural area. The local zoning ordinance of the town points and area for cemeteries in barangay CatungawanSur (not in Barangay Guio-ang where the purchased lot is located),” Castro said in his letter to COA 7. The payment of the lot amounted to more than P5M. Mayor Piezas, reacting to Castro’s letter, told COA-7 that she had just won this past election and that her overwhelming majority over his opponent showed confidence of her constituents despite all the bad propaganda. “I am not going to deny or accept such allegations but I would sincerely ask your good office to conduct a thorough investigation regarding these allegations,” Mayor Piezas said in his letter to COA. Lamenting on the allegations, Mayor Piezas said it has affected her family especially her children and grand kids. “But they all know me and what kind of person I am and they are all behind me. The fact that we received the Seal of Good Housekeeping speaks for itself,” she said. The Guindulman mayor also added a vow that “she is willing to take all the consequences of her wrongdoing if found guilty and that she will resign from being mayor.” (Published: June 9, 2013 THE BHOL STANDARD, Tagbilaran City)
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 04:45:42 +0000
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