sa tingin ninyo, ano ba lab ni BF... taong bayan, MMDA o pera?
| Written by Omerta / Butch del Castillo |
| Thursday, 08 January 2009 22:09 |
Of all the government agencies, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) under Chairman Bayani Fernando seems to be the most “autonomous,” as far as running its financial affairs are concerned. Through the MMDA, Fernando has been carrying on as if he were the chief of state of an independent republic. It looks like he will continue to enjoy this privileged status for as long as he remains on the good side of President Arroyo.
Nobody with oversight powers has so far questioned him on how he has been running MMDA finances. And that’s just the way he likes it, it seems.
The Commission on Audit (COA), as a rule, is averse to the idea of zealously exercising its mandated power of review on a fellow agency directly reporting to the President. Only if and when President Arroyo herself specifically directs it to step in and review this agency’s books of accounts will the COA dare do its mandated job. But the President, who has been dotingly giving Chairman Fernando a free hand in running the MMDA, never once ordered such an audit over the past six years. Sad, but true. If only she knew what a devastating effect the MMDA’s excesses and crazy schemes have had on her own satisfaction rating in Metro Manila, she would have long booted him out.
As things now stand, the COA leaves the MMDA pretty much to its own devices. There has been no directive to that effect from the mountain- top so far.
What we have in the MMDA is an agency that has been handling untold billions in revenues, whose annual budget and expenditures have not once been subjected to a meticulous audit since Fernando took over six years ago. The MMDA’s financial affairs have never been conducted in “open sunlight” for the public to readily behold.
The MMDA’s virtual immunity from audit, plus its unwillingness to open its books, can only give rise to the suspicion that a lot of financial hanky-panky must be going on in this highly controversial agency.
Already, Fernando’s aggressiveness in promoting the use of those iron railings, iron urinals and overhead pedestrian walkways (also made of iron) all over the metropolis has provoked all sorts of speculations, all of them derogatory to Fernando.
Who is supplying these iron contraptions? Which metal fabricators are getting a bonanza of orders from the MMDA? How are these procurements priced? Are such purchases in accordance with the provisions of the procurement law? Are honest-to-goodness public biddings being held, or are they routinely rigged to favor favored suppliers and contractors?
The fact that Fernando is a civil engineer and that he owns several companies in the construction and steel-fabrication business only makes the public all the more suspicious. It may be strictly happenstance, but add to that input his public declaration that he would run for the presidency in 2010, and the public can’t help but put two and two together.
Fernando has blanketed the countryside with his expensive two-by-three-meter kaayusan all-weather posters. The question is, who paid for these posters? Let’s hope it wasn’t the MMDA, but only an audit can determine this for sure. In any case, the question that must be on the minds of prospective rival presidential candidates is this: How did Fernando build up the political war chest that he has begun to use for his precampaign propaganda?
To sustain a decent presidential campaign, one needs a minimum of P5 billion. As speculation would have it, Fernando has amassed more than double that amount.
The question is inevitably this: Can being chairman for six years of an audit-free MMDA be that lucrative? The public recalls quite vividly that about four years ago, the President had appointed Fernando as public-works secretary in a concurrent capacity (he didn’t want to let go of the MMDA). It did not take long before he casually chucked the public-works portfolio.
Why? I can only think of one reason: Technically, the government agency charged with the responsibility of taking care of national roads everywhere, including those in Metro Manila, is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
(In Metro Manila, that function has all but been taken over by the MMDA. All contracts pertaining to these national roads are awarded by the MMDA.)
As public-works secretary, in short, he would be in constant conflict with himself.
Moreover, as public-works chief, all DPWH expenditures and contracts would have been subject to regular auditing and review not only by the COA, but also by the House appropriations committee, which decides on the size of the government’s yearly infrastructure budget.
At the MMDA, in stark contrast, public funds are practically audit-free, just like the intelligence fund of the President, which is exempt from pre- or postaudit regulations. So Fernando sacrificed the DPWH portfolio and retained the MMDA chairmanship. As MMDA chairman, he has the best of both worlds.
How very clever of him!
