COA flags LRTA deals, transactions

The Commission on Audit (COA) has called the attention of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) after spotting violations of the government procurement law in its implementation of the P397.88 million contract for the relocation of informal settlers affected by the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension Project..

In its 2017 annual audit report for the LRTA, COA also noted a number of deficiencies in the lease contracts of commercial spaces at LRTA Line 2.

Auditors chided the LRTA for slowing down the auditorial, legal and technical review of the P65 billion Concession Agreement for LRT 1 Cavite Exptension, saying that the state owned firm has continued to deny auditors access to much-needed documents.

According to COA, the legal issues raised in the contract by the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel has also not been clarified by LRTA.

“Several deficiencies were noted in the procurment and implementaiton of the contrqact costing P397.888 million for the Relocation Housing Facilities and Amenities Project for the informal Settlers Affected by the A;ightnmen of LRT Line 1 Cavite (South) Extension Project in violation of RA No. 9184,” COA said.

Under this program, the LRTA was tasked to construct 1,821 houses in a relocation area for informal settlers who will be displaced as a result of the construction of the new LRT line.

The relocation site will cost LRTA P397.888 million, with the contract awarded in 2015 to the HG III Construction and Development Corporation.

Auditors lamented that various documents needed in the review of the contract has not been submitted even as they sought clarificaiton “on several issues which we noted violated certain provisions of RA 9184” or the Government Procurement Law.

For failing to respond to the COA’s request, the management was slapped with a Notice of Suspension.

Other deficiencies in the contract were raised by COA auditors.

Among these are the non-signing by the administrator of the plans and drawing; failure to comply to the Bid Data Sheet and non-submission of certificaiton for the detailed engineering.

Audit examiners said the award of the contract was made “without first conducting the feasiblitiy study as required under RA 9184.

This is evidenced in the fact that soil testing, geotechnical/geological and geohazard investigaiton was included in the scope of the project and required a P4 million budget.

“The said soil testing and investigation should have been bidded out prior to the procurement of the housing of the housing project,” the audit report stated.

The variation order of the original contract indicated “non-compliance with the rules” set by the Implementing Rules and Regulation of RA 9184.

Auditors said that instead of allowing a variation order, a separate bidding should have been conducted for the geodetic survey in the summary for the sonstrcution of the housing units.

The LRTA management said the non-signing of the plans and drawings was due to the fact that the former administrator claimed he has no technical capacity to review it.

Officials also stressed that while variation order was sought after the conduct of the tests and investigation, it did not cost government any additional funding.

The COA also questioned the lease contracts granted by LRTA to operators of commercial spaces, saying that various deficiencies were observed.

Aside from allowing lessees with expired contracts to continue operating, LRTA management also failed to address deficienies in the rental payments and security deposit requirement.

Auditors also noted that a canteen operator pays a meager monthly ret of P5,250, free of electricity and water service charges.