No irregularity in ERC’s AVP project — COA

After completing a thorough investigation, the full Commission on Audit (COA) affirmed the earlier recommendation of the COA team detailed at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) stating that the conduct of a fraud audit was not necessary because no contract was ever consummated nor was any government fund disbursed for a planned audio-visual presentation (AVP).

ERC’s Office of the Auditor audit team officer-in-charge (OIC) Noroden Mira-Ato informed ERC OIC Alfredo Non of this assessment in a letter dated Aug. 24.

“The Commission Proper, Commission on Audit, has approved the recommendation of the Fraud Audit Office (FAO) that the conduct of fraud audit is not necessary at this time,” Mira-Ato said in the letter.

The letter revealed that COA directors Bresilo Sabaldan, who is in charge of FAO’s special services sector, and Nilda Plaras, Commission secretary, transmitted the recommendation to the commission proper in a memo dated June 28.

“It is stated in the Fraud Case Evaluation Report dated March 21, 2017, as approved by Director Sabaldan, that ‘the contract was not consummated, no disbursement of public funds was made in this particular case and will not cause detriment to the government,’ hence, they believe that the fraud audit is not necessary for the time being,” Mira-Ato further disclosed in the letter.

ERC chairman and chief executive officer Jose Vicente Salazar has requested the COA to conduct an investigation on the claims of bid rigging made by the late Francisco Jose Villa Jr., former ERC director and chairman of the agency’s bids and awards committee.

The suicide of Villa prompted a congressional inquiry.

Villa’s claim of bid rigging in the AVP project is also the root of vigorous attempts to unseat Salazar.

Salazar has disputed his suspension as being flimsy and contrary to due process as provided by law.