THE Office of the Ombudsman ordered on Wednesday the filing of 18 counts of graft against incumbent Cagayan City Mayor Oscar Moreno before the Sandiganbayan over the disallowed contracts of lease of heavy equipment when he was then the governor from 2007 to 2012.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales also held the CDO guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and falsification of public documents.
Moreno was ordered dismissed from the service and meted the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, forfeiture of retirement benefits, cancellation of eligibility and prohibition from taking civil service examination.
The other accused–former assistant provincial engineer Rolando Pacuribot, former provincial city administrator Patrick Gabutina, former provincial budget officer Elmer Wabe, former provincial accountant Divina Bade, former provincial general services office Elsie Lopoy, former provincial agriculturist Danilo Maputol and former administrative aide Leemar Tinagan–were also found administratively culpable and ordered dismissed.
Morales directed Interior and Local Government Secretary Catalino Cuy to implement the dismissal order.
In 16 separate resolutions, Morales charged Bade with 16 counts of graft, and bids and awards committee members–former provincial legal officer Cancio Guibone for one count, Wabe for 17 counts, Gabutina for 16 counts, Pacuribot for 18 counts, former provincial agriculturist Danilo Maputol for two counts, Lopoy for five counts and Tinagan for three counts.
Morales also instructed the filing of falsification of public documents against Moreno for one count, Wabe for four counts, Gabutina for four counts, Pacuribot for four counts, Lopoy for four counts, Maputol for two counts and Tinagan for one count.
“Revealed that the road maintenance program of the province received the biggest share of the non-office projects and that the expenses for rental equipment is the third biggest expenditure under maintenance and other operating expenses. The Commission on Audit also stated that the disbursements for equipment rental were irregular, with transactions amounting to P20,500,000 considered as fictitious as suppliers denied participation in the bidding process,” CoA’s 2007 to 2012 special audit report on equipment rental of Misamis Oriental read.
The Ombudsman said the respondents failed to conduct a public bidding, and instead resorted to an alternative method of shopping to rent tankers and road rollers, and that an excavator was procured through negotiated procurement.
The CoA issued several notices of disallowances anchored on the findings that the “bidding for the rental was simulated or rigged.”
“Wabe, Gabutina, Pacuribot and Lopoy should be held liable for making it appear in the abstract of canvass form that [the contractors] participated in the bidding, when it truth, they did not,” the resolution read.
CoA’s notice of disallowances for the anomalous contracts become final and executory in January 2015.
“There is not even a single document that invoked the existence of an emergency situation,” the Ombudsman said.
Representatives from supposed contractors Equiprent, Geo Transport and Golden Richfield denied “any transaction for equipment rental with the provincial government.”