Llamas: Streetlight ordinance 'useless'
Posted on June 1, 2003 - Filed Under News |
WILL the supplier of the 420 lamp posts installed by the city, initially without an ordinance supporting it, be finally paid right after the city council passed an ordinance approving a P10 million supplemental budget for the project?
Some think so but lawyer Victor Llamas Jr. of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for Reforms Justice and Good Government thinks otherwise having described the ordinance approved by the council last Friday by a vote of 6-3 as “useless”.
Those who voted for the ordinance were Councilors Teofilo Guadiz III, Vlad Mata, Jose Netu Tamayo, Fausto Cuison, Juanito Almonte and Eric Munoz. The negative votes were registered by Councilors Michael Fernandez, Charise Perez and Farah Decano.
Two other councilors Cesar Reyna and Danilo Torio, were not present.
“That is practically a useless ordinance because the same is not complete in itself. An ordinance should be complete. But this one still requires something to be done,” Llamas said in an interview with the PUNCH.
The way the ordinance was crafted, the city council was waiting for something to be done by the Commission on Audit, which is not proper, Llamas said.
Councilor Tamayo inserted an amendment that the ordinance “is subject to the approval of the COA.”
“ We are going to wait for one more step to be done and then we’ll find out if we can sue them for violation of the anti-graft law,” Llamas said.
He said his group will wait if the Sanggunian will eventually authorize or ratify the illegal acts of the mayor, expressing his personal view that the approval of the supplemental budget did not ratify the alleged illegal acts.
He cited the need for the mayor’s office to submit the specific work plan of the project so the latter would know what and how much the city would spend for what materials.
He said that bidding is a requirement in the local government code nothwithstanding the legal opinion of OIC legal officer Roy Laforteza that the bidding was not necessary since the supplier is the sole distributor of the materials in the Philippines as certified to by the manufacturer himself.
“It has to undergo a bidding process again. According to the local government code, all projects and procurements have to be bidded and there should be specific details so the bidders will be advised on how much they should bid,” Llamas said.
He said that the sequence of events showed that the supplier made a delivery without the benefit of a public bidding.
Citing the rules, he pointed out that the procurement or project has to be bidded out at least twice and if these fail, then and only then can the mayor seek to negotiate and the Sanggunian can authorize the mayor to conduct a negotiated sale or purchase.
He said the city treasurer can not disburse any amount without fulfilling those bidding requirements. He warned that if the said official would make any disbursement, it would be illegal because the city would be paying for an indebtedness which has not been authorized by the city council.
“So we are waiting for one more step to be undertaken by the Sanggunian. If it goes beyond approving this special supplemental budget, then we’ll take action. “ he said.
He cautioned council members to be very careful because they might be authorizing or ratifying an illegal act of the mayor. “This is just like consenting to unwarranted favors which the mayor had granted to a certain favored contractor without a bidding,” he added.
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