P1.247 billion mess - 2

So, although BACIWA Manager Juliana Carbon said that the certification she issued on Dec. 18, 2009 and submitted to LWUA was “just a mere scrap of paper” it can be the smoking gun. It was not only Carbon who certified it. There are people involved.

These are all the members of the Board of Directors who authorized it: Pompeyo U. Querubin (chairman), Nelson Lo (vice chairman), Ma. Aida K. Torre (secretary-treasurer) and Cecilia A. Henares and Lawrence D. Villanueva (members).

The resolution (No. 007, all in capital letters, in italics) approved the “revised draft of Certificate of Project Completion and Final Acceptance of Phase III Project, amounting to Two Hundred Four Million Six Hundred Eighty Five Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Five and 02/100 Pesos Only (Php 204, 685,235.02), per Final Variation Order No. 5, as Recommended by Management and Authorizing Atty. Juliana B. Carbon, General Manager, to Sign the Certificate of Project Completion and Final Acceptance of Phase III Project, for and in behalf of BACIWA.”

It is clear that it was not just Carbon who issued this certification that was used by the project contractor to ask LWUA for payment. The board itself has also liability here; she should not bear the entire brunt of accountability and responsibility.

There is something more. The date of the certification issued by Carbon is Dec. 18, 2009 while the authority issued by the board is Jan. 5, 2010. Carbon thus issued the certification without the authority of the board which now appears to be an afterthought on the part of Carbon. It seems she sought the board's authority to cover her slip-up. Why was she in a hurry? Was it because of Christmas?

The “scrap of paper” turned out to be the real thing.

It seems the board did not exercise due diligence to determine whether the project was completed. In this case they share the responsibility because reports say the project was not completed and that no water came out of the supposed kilometers-long pipe line of Phase III.

For instance, did any member of the board inspect the pipeline and determine whether water was flowing from them? That does not need a lot of time or brain.

Carbon is not alone. The resolution authorizing payment was based on recommendation of management. This is not just Carbon but her immediate staff or department heads.

Did the board question Carbon after this ante-dated certification came out? It seems nobody did because the issue would have come out of BACIWA and legal and administrative action initiated against her.

My sources of “no water” in the pipeline last year were from within BACIWA, which explains why the management supports Carbon. Are they all into this?

The certification issued by Carbon is clearly without legal effect because she did not mention that she had the authority of the board. It was a unilateral act on her part and yet the Local Water Utilities Administration did not bother to check and forthwith paid the contractor – Green Asia Construction and Development Corporation. The contractor also did not question the validity of the certification. Is there a conspiracy?

It is therefore understandable that Carbon denigrated her own certification during the SP hearing as a mere scrap of paper. She should have in fact presented the board resolution but she did not because it would have complicated and compounded her apparently invalid certification. As WARRANT said “she was caught in the act of lies and denial.”

The group concluded that this apparent disregard of the power of the board from whom she should secure an authorization “as one proof that the Baciwa board is just a ‘rubber stamp' and that Atty. Juliana Carbon has the power to move even with the Board approval”.

WARRANT further claims there are “several instances that Carbon can do what she wants with the Baciwa funds even without the Board's approval.”

Considering that Querubin, Lo and Torre are lawyers, why did they fail to check this clear discrepancy in a government-controlled corporation paying in the millions? If they were negligent, will they not be likewise legally liable in case WARRANT brings this matter to the Ombudsman?

The allegations are serious. Paglumotan has the opportunity to prove his mettle by conducting an official inquiry in this P1.247 billion mess. Also WARRANT can prove its credibility by filing a case with the Ombudsman. That should be the next step considering that Carbon is opting to retire as with two others in charge of BACIWA finances.*

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