Auditor links Mrs Binay to P72-M fraud

Rappler.com

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Commission on Audit Commissioner Heidi Mendoza takes the witness stand in a graft trial against Mrs Elenita Binay

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza on Wednesday, September 26, testified at the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division linking former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay and several former city officials to alleged fraud in the public bidding for a P72.06-M contract awarded by the city government in 2001.
 
The trial concerns a graft charge involving the purchase of furniture and fixtures for the Makati City Hall. It names Binay, wife of Vice President Jejomar Binay, as among the accused along with city councilor Salvador Pangilinan, former city administrator Nicanor V. Santiago Jr., then city treasurer Ernesto A. Aspillaga and private defendant Bernadette Aquino.
 
Under direct examination by Prosecution Bureau Director Omar Sagadal, Mendoza said her team of auditors found several factors that led them to believe the public bidding was rigged. At the time, Mendoza was the city government’s resident auditor.
 
She said Aquino, who represented bidder Asia Concept, received the purchase order on behalf of supposed rival bidder, Office Gallery International Inc.
 
But Office Gallery was located in the same address as the third bidder, MFE International.
 
“Two of the supposed bidders shared the same office address. Basically the findings were about rigged bidding,” the auditor told the court.
 
The first sign was the fact that the public bidding was published in a local newspaper – Metro Profile – which had very limited circulation contrary to the requirement set by the COA and the Local Government Code that such announcements should be in newspapers with national readership.

Same day
 
In addition, the audit team questioned the early termination of the bidding on August 16, 2000 and the issuance of the purchase order to bid winner Office Gallery International Inc. the following day.  
 
“It is significant because according to regular practice the bidding should have been until the end of August 16, (2000) to allow other competitors to submit. But the bid envelopes were opened at 2 pm of the same day. Under the rules, you have to wait until the end of the day …then you have to conduct a pre-qualification process,” Mendoza explained.
 
The audit team likewise found that the invitation to bid delivered to eventual winner Office Gallery was addressed at Building 2, Mangosteen Road, FTI Complex in Taguig City, the same address listed for supposed competitor MFE International.
 
“During the audit, we visited the warehouse and offices of (Office) Gallery International and it was (in) the same address as MFE,” Mendoza recalled.

Pattern of collusion

Defense lawyers tried to have this portion of her testimony stricken from the record on grounds that the MFE was not impleaded as a party in the case. The graft court overruled this objection, however, as Prosecutor Sagadal argued that the statement shows the “pattern of collusion” as alleged in the information.
 
Also telling were the striking similarities in the details of the bids submitted by all 3 contending companies despite the absence of a floor plan that would have shown the total floor area, the type of partitions required and which spaces were to remain open.
 
“In our report, we observed that bidders were able to offer similar specifications. They quoted the similar numbers (of fixtures), same types and similar specifications. We wondered how it was possible without any information. Without such information, the bidding should not have proceeded,” Mendoza told the court.
 
Prosecutor Sagadal also marked as part of government evidence documents bearing the signatures of Binay, Aspillaga, Santiago and Pangilinan including disbursement vouchers, minutes of the meetings of the Bids and Awards Committee and the purchase order.
 
Defense lawyers will have a chance to attack Mendoza’s testimony on Nov 7, 2012 which the graft court set for cross-examination.

The Binay family has controlled Makati politics for 3 decades now, since the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. The incumbent mayor is the couple’s son Jun-Jun.

Vice President Binay plans to run for president in 2016.

Mendoza left COA under the Arroyo administration. She figured prominently in the investigation of retired Maj Gen Carlos Garcia, the highest ranking military officer to be charged with plunder. Mendoza at the time was hired by then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo to assist in the probe, but the Sandiganbayan later entered into a plea bargain deal with Garcia. – Rappler.com

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