More ‘ghost’, substandard Bulacan flood projects in 5th COA fraud audit

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit Fraud Audit Office (COA FAO) on Friday, October 11, submitted its fifth batch of reports on the flood control anomaly in Bulacan to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.

The reports covered four construction of barriers to serve as flood protection of three towns in Bulacan. All of the four projects – funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways’ Bulacan First District Engineering Office – were tagged by COA as ghost projects.

The first report included a P96.5 million “riverbank protection structure” in Barangay San Roque, Baliuag, Bulacan contracted by M3 Konstract Corporation.

“COA proceeded to inspect the site identified by DPWH, where it found an existing structure that already had several defects and cracks. Worse, the existing structure is for a different project altogether. COA also inspected the original approved location and found a structure attributable to a different project as well,” the audit team said.

For this project, among those found liable are:

• Former district engineer Henry Alcantara
• Former assistant district Engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez
• Former Jaypee Mendoza
• Engineer Irene Ontingco
• Planning and Design Chief Ernesto Galang
• Engineer Jefferson Buendia
• Engineer Prince Earl De Ocampo
• Engineer John Michael Ramos
• Louis Raphael Tiqui of M3 Konstract Corporation, along with the company’s officers and board members

For the second and third projects, SYMS Construction and Trading was supposed to build a P92.67-million flood structure in Barangay Manatal in Pandi, and a P74.112-million riverbank protection structure along Balagtas River in Barangay San Juan in Balagtas.

But according to COA, the payments to the contractor were given Notices of Disallowance due to numerous violations.

“DPWH-Bulacan First DEO representatives pinpointed a different project site to COA. Again, no explanation was provided why the location was changed. At the pinpointed location, COA saw an unfinished structure with exposed steel bars, formworks, and sheet piles. COA also noted the absence of any workers or equipment at the location during the inspection,” the report said in relation to the Pandi project.

Those found liable are Alcantara, Hernandez, Galang, Ramos, Project Engineer Lemuel Ephraim Roque, Engineer Jolo Mari Tayao, and Sally Santos of SYMS Construction Trading.

In the Balagtas project, COA said that the project’s original location did not have a flood structure. In the site pointed by the DPWH, the auditors found an existing structure that failed to meet project specifications due to unsuitable materials used.

“COA discovered that based on DPWH’s own database, the project was tagged as on-going, yet full payment was already made to the contractor,” the auditors said.

Those named liable are Alcantara, Hernandez, Galang, Ramos, Ontingco, Buendia, Engineer Michelle Cruz, and SYMS’ Santos.

Meanwhile, the fourth project was contracted by Amethyst Horizon Builders and Gen. Contractor and Development Corporation for P96.5 million. This involves the construction of a riverbank protection structure along Balagtas River supposedly located in Barangay Dalig in Balagtas.

However, the identified location on the documents was different from the site where the DPWH-Bulacan First DEO led the auditing team.

“During COA’s inspection a flood control project was seen at the approved location but DPWH-Bulacan First DEO a project at another location. At the pinpointed location, COA found a flood control structure which did not match the approved plan. Again, DPWH offered no justification why the location was changed,” the audit team said.

Held liable for the anomalous project are Alcantara, Hernandez, Galang, Ontingco, Ramos, Mendoza, Cruz, Engineer Jasmine Jean Gonzaga, and Rochelle Campos of Amethyst Horizon Builders and Gen. Contractor and Development Corp.

Based on its count, the COA FAO said it had already turned over nine fraud audit reports to the Office of the Ombudsman and 12 to the ICI.

The COA initiated the fraud audit on flood control projects after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a performance review of the projects amid corruption allegations. – Rappler.com