A Makati City official on Thursday scored the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee for forcing the Commission on Audit to make public its preliminary report on the alleged overpriced construction of Makati City Hall Building II. City Administrator Eleno Mendoza said the actions of members of the Senate subcommittee showed “a blatant disregard for the rule of law and a proclivity to bend the rules to suit their own ends.” He said the presentation of the preliminary audit report violated COA rules and was "patently unfair" to the city government. "As a rule, COA audits are confidential in nature because the office being audited has the right to reply and explain the findings. Preliminary findings are not conclusive findings," Mendoza said in a press statement. He said that under COA rules, the agency being audited is asked to submit its replies and comments on preliminary findings to the audit commission, which then discuses the findings and corresponding comments with the agency in an exit conference. “Only after such a conference does COA render a final report,” he said. COA commissioner Jose Fabia and Alexander Juliano, who conducted the special audit, asked the subcommittee to keep the report confidential but Senator Awuilino Pimentel III, subcommittee chairman, refused, citing "overwhelming public interest." Mendoza pointed out that Juliano, who read the report out, was forced to make the findings public. “This is patently unfair to the city government, which has yet to see and comment on the said findings,” he said. Mendoza claimed that the preliminary report does not mention overpricing. “It only mentions alleged lapses in the procurement process,” he said. The COA said in its preliminary report that there seemed to be undue haste in the construction of the controversial building. It also found supposed violations of the procurement law. Cases vs. Mrs. Binay Meanwhile, COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza presented findings of the special audit she conducted on the Makati city government in 2001. Those findings were the basis for graft charges filed against Dr. Elenita Binay, wife of Vice President Jejomar Binay and Makati mayor from 1998 to 2001. She said COA has two reports, first, on hospital equipment purchased for Ospital ng Makati, and second, on office furniture. In 2011, the Ombudsman cleared Mrs. Binay of the graft and malversation charges in connection with overpricing in the purchase of P43 million worth of hospital equipment. The ant-graft body reopened the case early this year, a move that the Binay camp has brought before the Supreme Court. The P13-million graft case for the purchase of office furniture, on the other hand, is still pending before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division. — JDS, GMA News

• published: 02 Oct 2014
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