CITY, GET P 3.9M BACK

Auditors ask the Cebu City Government to recover P 3.9M in funds advanced to contractors with cancelled or terminated deals Contracts included road concreting in Mambaling, improvements on the General Services Office

The Cebu City Government failed to recover some P3.9 million that it paid in advance to six contractors whose projects were either canceled or terminated.

In its 2017 audit of the City’s transactions, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the failure to recover the payments made from 2015 to 2016 kept the City from using the money for other priority projects.

“A review of the subsidiary ledgers of the advance to contactors account revealed that advance payments totaling P3,904,390.79 from 2015 and 2016 were not recouped by the City as of Dec. 31, 2017,” read a portion of the COA report.

These contractors include EM Arante/Armed Builders, which was supposed to improve the General Services Office; Jegma Construction and Development Corp., which was supposed to construct a lined canal with cover in Barangay Basak San Nicolas; and JO Builders, which won the contract for a road concreting project with drainage system in Barangay Mambaling, among others.

Under the Government Procurement Reform Act, “the advance payment shall be repaid by the contractor by deducting 15 percent from his periodic progress payments a percentage equal to the percentage of the total contract price used for the advance payment.”

COA recommended that the City demands the immediate refund of the amount paid to the contractors.

Acting City Treasurer Veronica Morelos said they already sent demand letters to the contractors.

“We will write them again to ask them to pay,” she said.

If the contractors still fail to do so, Morelos said they will refer the matter to the City Legal Office for proper action.