“Reasonable.”

That was what the Commission on Audit said in its report on the special audit on the construction of the new Bacolod City Government Center a copy of which was sent to Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia by COA chairman Reynaldo Villar in his letter dated April 1, 2009.

The “special audit” results jibe with the original audit report submitted earlier by the COA Regional Office signed by OIC-Regional Cluster Director Inocencio Cabahug Jr. that also described the construction cost of the new government center as “reasonable”, pursuant to COA Resolution No. 91-52.

Both COA findings belied recent published reports (not in the DAILY STAR) and over broadcast media about an alleged “overprice” in the cost of the construction of the government center.

Leonardia slammed the reports that he said had maliciously twisted the contents of the COA official document, by saying that there was an “overprice” in the construction.

Nowhere in the voluminous and exhaustive COA documents is the word “overprice” even mentioned, Leonardia pointed out.

WITHIN ALLOWABLE LIMITS

He quoted in full the Summary of the Findings and Observation of the report that said: “Based on Cost Comparison, the Bid Price and the Contract Price of P398,957,121.01 and P394,957,121.01 are relatively higher than the COA Estimated Project Cost of P369,046,853.07 by P25,910,267.94 or 7.02 percent, respectively. With reference, however, to COA Resolution No. 91-52 dated September 17, 1991, such variance can be considered reasonable as within the 10 percent allowable limit.”

To claim therefore that the P25,910,267.94, which is 7.02 percent, and is even less that the ALLOWABLE limit of 10 percent, is an overprice can only be a blatant lie that can only come from a vicious attempt to malign those involved in the construction of the Government Center, Leonardia also said.

He also noted that the COA report even included tables showing very clearly the contract price, the COA estimated project cost, the amount difference, and the allowable percent variant of 7.02 percent, which is even lower in the Special Audit Report than the 8.18 percent stated in the Regional COA report earlier.

Leonardia also said it is also obvious that the “interested parties” who caused the publication of the lies and misinformation were able to acquire a copy of the COA report ahead of the city officials, and were able to inflict their twisted versions on the people of Bacolod earlier.

OVERPRICE-ORIENTED

Leonardia also said such a second audit is very rare, as the first audit conducted by the COA Regional Office should have been enough. But because of a sinister intention to discredit the project, a special one was engineered by the camp of Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, he added.

But this has proven good because now it is clear to all that the news peddled by their propaganda machine was a flagrant distortion of facts.

As for the alleged overprice, it is only in the brain of the mastermind because he is known to be overprice oriented, and has grown in the culture and is so familiar with overpricing that he thinks all projects are overpriced, Leonardia said.

This is indeed a case of “Thinkers are doers”, he added.

ROAD NETWORK

The report, however, noted that the bid and contract agreement did not include the construction of a road network or perimeter road as stipulated in the terms of reference under Item III- Detailed Scope of Works, Section iv.

Concerning the road network, Leonardia said their technical people made a review, and there was a miscomprehension of the terms of reference since the road network outside of the area is not supposed to be part of the bidding price of the construction.

However, Leonardia said that because COA recommended that they enjoin Hillmarc’s Construction Corporation to explain, they will precisely do that and comply with the recommendation of COA.

“We are very confident that the COA will see a clearer picture and everything will be clarified,” he said.*CGS

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