Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Legal panel vs Scantel created
CITY Hall has created a legal panel whose primary task is to study “the best course of action” against the contractor of the bungled P49 million Barangay Telephone System project.
The move came nearly a month after Supplier Contractor and Networking Telecommunications (Scantel) botched a second deadline to finish the mothballed telephone system, which would have connected at least 17 hinterland barangays to the rest of Cagayan de Oro.
In creating the panel late last week, Mayor Constantino Jaraula said it was no longer a question whether or not City Hall would press charges against Scantel for failing to meet its contractual obligations.
The three-man panel, he said, would study what cases are going to be filed against the erring contractor. It will be headed by Assistant City Legal Officer Mart Damian Maandig.
Scantel started the project in 2003, but has yet to make the telephone project operational despite the P31 million advances it has already collected from the local government.
Mayor Jaraula pointed out that City Hall has given Scantel “more than enough time” to complete the project, but has failed twice to make good on its promises.
In October 2007, City hall gave Scantel until December 31, 2007 to fix the defects of the barangay telephone system project.
Scantel requested for the extension of the deadline and again, the City Government relented by giving a 94-day extension of the project completion ended last April 17.
In a meeting with City Hall officials last month, Scantel President Francisco Z. Villapando again promised to make the project operational by June.
In that meeting, Jaraula said he told Villapando to “make the system operational corresponding to the amount which the City Government had already paid.”
The Scantel official, he said, admitted that “deficiencies in the project have caused undue delay” in its completion.
State auditors had earlier found that the project was given a green light despite the absence of several technical requirements.
Villapando, in an earlier interview with this paper, agreed with the findings, saying the telephone system failed partly to operate because no study was made before it was undertaken.
He also blamed a former Scantel employee, who he said had mismanaged the project.
The rural telephone project forms part of the plunder charges filed against the previous administration.
Meanwhile, the mayor also appointed as members of the legal panel lawyers Reynaldo S. Llego and Andrew D. Barba.
