COA orders return of P215 million in bungled Albay hospital project
Legazpi City– The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the return of P215.7 million by the contractor of a 5-storey hospital building at the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center (BRHMC) located at Brgy. Bagtang, Daraga, Albay.
The amount represented the excess payment made by the hospital, formerly the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH), to the contractor, New Vic Construction Corporation (NVCC), a Manila-based company.
In its 2023 audit report publihed only mid of this year, the COA noted that the BRHMC paid the contractor the amount of P317.9 million for a 53.92-percent work accomplishment as certified by the hospitals’ Engineering and Facility Management Office (EFMO), headed by a certain Engineer Richard Serrano. However, an audit team found that the actual accomplishment was only 17.33 percent.
The directive to return the excess amount was “without prejudice to the issuance of a corresponding Notice of Disallowance”, which would eventually require the responsible officials to pay for the disallowed amount.
Documents obtained by Bicol Files showed that the contract agreement was signed on February 8, 2018, by Dr. Rogelio Rivera, who at the time served as the BRHMC chief, and NVCC managing head Vivian Llorando. The agreement outlined a 720-day work duration with a target completion date of December 25, 2020. Rivera has since retired from government service and is now the vice-mayor of Guinobatan, Albay.
The DOH investigation was prompted by the report of a monitoring team from the central office last June 3, 2022, which inspected the project funded under the Health Facility Enhancement Program (HFEP). The project could have significantly increased the hospital capacity by 600 beds.
Thus, sometime in 2023, the Department of Health-Bicol (DOH-Bicol) formed an investigating team composed of Dr. Rose Balisnomo-Rempillo, now the DOH-Bicol regional director, as chair, Dante Atento, and lawyer Jaime Guerrero, then the regional office’s legal officer, as members, which looked into the irregularities.
The probe team noted the discrepancies between the payment released compared to the work accomplishment, raising red flags on the project.
The government loss was further aggravated after the new RHMC chief, Dr. Raymond Raborar, who assumed office in May 2021, approved the release of the retention money, amounting to P31.788 million.
In its investigation report, the team said the retention money should have been held by the BRHMC until after the project had been turned over to the agency purposely to answer for any defect or deficiency in the project.
In an interview last year, Raborar asserted that the release of the retention money was justified as it was supported by a certification from former hospital chief, Rivera, who stated “that construction work was on schedule and was satisfactorily undertaken.”
Asked about the discrepancies, Raborar said he directed both the financial management office (FMO) headed by Mary Nathalie Cadag and the chief of the EFMO to explain the noted inconsistencies between the accomplishments and the actual payments made.
Efforts to further dig into the issue was stumped after two of the key finance personnel were allowed to retire or resign despite their accountability in the controversy.
Bicol Files had repeatedly communicated with Rivera through his Facebook Messenger account to get his side but has not received any response as of posting time. Bicol Files