COA SLEPT ON MY LETTER, SAYS TOMAS

Mayor raised ‘9 fatal defects’ in the sale of SRP lots to the consortium of SM Prime Holdings, Ayala Land, Inc., Filinvest Land Inc. by previous administration

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has questioned the Commission on Audit’s (COA) failure to act on his letter asking for the disapproval of the sale of lots in the South Road Properties (SRP) in 2015, eight months after he sent it.

“They’re sleeping on it. They don’t like to act on it,” he told reporters in his news conference last Friday.

In the letter dated Sept. 7, 2017, Osmeña raised “nine fatal defects” in the sale of SRP lots to the consortium of SM Prime Holdings, Ayala Land Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc. during the previous administration.

COA, he said, should disapprove the sale because of its defects and the fact that it’s illegal.

Osmeña said Resolution 130418-2014, which authorized former mayor Michael Rama to sell SRP lots, cannot supersede an ordinance banning the sale of the same lots.

Rama, then, had no authority from the Council to conduct the bidding and to sign the deed of sale, Osmeña said.

On June 30, 2015, the Council asked Rama to stop the public

Since there was only one bidder when the sale of SRP lots was made in 2015, then the sale is considered as a failure, says Mayor Tomas Osmeña bidding, but Rama disobeyed it and proceeded with the bidding.

The previous administration also did not follow the mandatory procedure to post the transaction in a public place and failed to secure a certification from the Committee on Awards.

Osmeña said the public sale of government properties requires the participation of at least three bidders and since there was only one bidder when the sale of SRP lots was made in 2015, then the sale was a failure.

The sale of SRP lots to the consortium, the mayor said, was a negotiated sale that requires COA approval as stated under Republic Act 7160.

“The SM-Ayala consortium was the only bidder. Clearly, the resulting award and contract from that bidding was actually a sale through negotiation as specifically denominated in COA Circular No. 89-296. Since COA has the jurisdiction and duty to approve the SRP contract to sell, its concomitant jurisdiction and duty is likewise to disapprove said SRP contact to sell, as may be warranted,” read portion of the letter.

Osmeña said he plans to file cases against SM and Ayala over the sale.

“I’m going to file a case eventually against them. I’m just waiting for COA to make a move. But I believe I have a very strong case,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said the consortium was also fictitious and that there was no evidence that it actually existed as SM and Ayala individually bought their bid documents.

Earlier, the City sold 45.2 hectares in the SRP to the consortium of Ayala, SM and Filinvest at P16.76 billion.

Osmeña already made a pronouncement before that he will break the sale, saying it is illegal.