THE Office of the Ombudsman upheld on Friday the filing of charges against a former lawmaker from Albay—Reno Lim—for the alleged anomalous utilization of his Priority Development Assistance Fund of P27million in 2007.
Five Technology Resource Center officials, Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation Inc. representatives and Carmelita Barredo of C.C. Barredo Publishing House also face charges of four counts of graft and four counts of malversation.
Those charged were TRC executives Antonio Ortiz, Dennis Cunanan, Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana, Marivic Jover and Consuelo Lilian Espiritua, as well as KMFI representatives Carlos Soriano and France Mercado.
In a related administrative case, the Ombudsman also affirmed the administrative liability of Jover and Espiritu for grave misconduct and ordered their dismissal from the service.
In August and November 2007, Lim requested the release of his P30-million pork barrel fund and identified TRC as implementing agency with KMFI as its partner.
The budget was intended for the procurement of 8,000 sets of livelihood instructional materials and technology kits.
In 2008, a memorandum of agreement was signed by Lim, TRC and KMFI representatives.
Lim “personally handpicked KMFI twice as project implementor without the benefit of public bidding.”
The Commission on Audit uncovered blatant anomalies in the fund use, citing the lack of public bidding; KMFI’s lack of a track record, as it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission only in 2006; the non-government organization had no legitimate business address as its address is the same as C.C. Barredo; no accreditation process was undertaken to determine the capacity of KMFI; the payment of P27 million was made prior to signing the agreement, and the project was considered a“fictitious or ghost project” as no deliveries of livelihood kits were made.
Based on field validation, Ombudsman investigators ascertained that “not one among the constituents of said legislative district received the livelihood technology kit.”
In a motion for reconsideration, Lim claimed that “he is not liable for his PDAF having no hand in its disbursement and having relied in good faith that it will be used for the purpose it was intended.”
In junking Lim’s motion, the Ombudsman stated “the evidence [consisting] of sworn statements of the witnesses, the disbursement vouchers, the indorsed/encashed checks, the MoA’s with KMFI, the written requests, liquidation reports, confirmation letters and other evidence on record, indubitably establish that [Lim] connived with the TRC officials in the repeated conversion of his P30million PDAF.”
“The findings of this Office are also buttressed by the Notices of Disallowance recently issued by the Commission on Audit on 26 October 2015,”the anti-graft court said.