In the investigation of a case pertaining to the award of construction projects without proper authorization in a 2013 case regarding drainage work, the Ombudsman has indicted the former Caloocan Mayor, Enrico Echiverri since the case involved graft.
The former Mayor and lawmaker who had represented Caloocan, who was being tried for graft, was indicted by the Ombudsman, and held responsible for graft on two counts for malpractices in awarding construction and repairs works in the case of Barangay hall construction projects as well as in the drainage projects awarded by him when he was the Chief Executive of the local office.
Conchita Morales, the Ombudsman issued a statement to that effect asserting that she had come to the conclusion that there was sufficient proof which had emerged during her investigations of the case, that the former Mayor could be charged with violating provisions of the Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices Act under section 3 (e).
In addition to Echiverri, also indicted on two counts of graft each, were two officers of the city administration; Jesusa Garcia, the city Budget Officer and Edna Centeno, the former Accountant for the city administration were both indicted on substantiated charges of falsifying public documents graft.
It was revealed that, according to the records available, the city administration had, in 2013, passed a drainage system repairs project in Barangay 30’s Antipolo Street; the layout for this project was to the tune of P4.9 million.
Also, approved by the city administration in 2011 was another project which was pertaining to the construction of a Barangay hall in Barangay 154; city records revealed that the outlay of this project was P5.4 million and ERchiverri had approved this project too.
The irregularities were noticed by the Commission on Audit (COA) officials who observed that neither was any approval obtained from the Sangguniang Panlungsod nor were there any ordinances containing specific ordinances.
Consequently, notices disallowing the two projects were caused to be issued by the COA in 2013 itself.
The Ombudsman observed that providing unauthorized approval for projects and affording unwarranted favors to a private party were the two reasons to assume safely that the transactions were illegal.
In the recent elections, Echiverri contested tried to get re-elected as the Caloocan representative but lost the Mayoral race to Oscar Malapitan.
Umrao Singh umraoz.wordpress.com
Monday, July 4, 2016
Written for: Lars-Magnus Carlsson www.thephilippinepride.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
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