THE Commission on Audit has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)—Tacloban City Sub-District Engineering Office seeking recall of the disallowance issued against P35.15 million payments for eight road projects.
Auditors issued the notices of disallowance in 2011 based on a finding that there was overpricing in the costing of bituminous concrete surface course for eight road projects undertaken in 2010.
The questioned DPWH-TSCDEO projects were priced at P990.25 per square meter (sqm) but the COA said the DPWH-Regional Office 8 used the unit price of P838.80 per sqm. on similar projects in the same area.
Auditors added that the lower costing was found reasonable by the Regional Technical and Information Technology Service (RTechITS).
In its appeal, the DPWH-TSCDEO claimed the lower unit price was not the basis used by the DPWH RO8, saying there were several projects in 2011 and 2012 when the cost of bituminous concrete surface course ranged well above P1,100 per sqm. hence P990.25 per sqm should be considered reasonable.
For its part, private contractor MCGR Engineering Services said it was not aware of the COA maximum allowable cost and had relied only on the approved agency estimate when it joined the bidding for one of the eight road projects.
It pointed out that it submitted a complete set of plans with specifications and detailed computations, thus there should not even be an implication that it made excessive profits.
The COA Commission Proper said the DPWH-TSCDEO’s appeal did not raise anything new as the grounds raised were already discussed and overruled in the assailed decision.
The motion for reconsideration filed by MCGR Engineering was dismissed for non-compliance with the procedural rules as it bypassed the COA Regional Office when it appealed directly to the Commission Proper.
