FLOW's Position

SO THAT THE PUBLIC MAY KNOW :

The First Labor Organization of the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (F.L.O.W.) is protesting through peaceful mass actions on the following issues;

 DISCREPANCIES OF THE BULK WATER SUPPLY PROJECT (BWSP) CONTRACT PROVISIONS.

The COWD Board had pushed for amendments and revisions instead of reformation. The Office of the Government Corporate Council’s opinion was for reformation of the contract to the model agreement. Offshoot to that opinion, the Interim General Manager submitted amendments of the BWSP Contract to LWUA instead of reverting back to its model contract provisions. The proposed amendments are still onerous and favorable to Rio Verde. Subsequently, LWUA had approved said request last December 21,2009 without even considering the factual findings of COA’s Fraud Audit Report.

F.L.O.W.’s Position :

We strongly oppose the Interim General Manager’s actions and LWUA’s approval on the matter. We are consistent of our position that the COWD BWSP Contract be reverted back to its model agreement provisions.


 MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT OF THE INDAHAG PROJECT

The COWD Board and the Office of the Mayor is forging a Memorandum of Agreement for the Indahag Project which will involve purchase of bulk water of 10,000 cu.m./day from Rio Verde Water Consortium. The COWD Management deemed it disadvantageous to the district citing legal and financial reasons. We are currently investigating if indeed the Interim General Manager has already signed said MOA. The COWD Board has been silent and discrete on the status of this.

F.L.O.W.’s Position :

Entering into another agreement involving Rio Verde is an act of conceding with the BWSP Contract disputes and would only jeopardize our claims.





 COMMISSION ON AUDIT’S FRAUD AUDIT MEMORANDUM

The COA partial report dated November 09,2009 has enumerated the series of events that started from the Bulk Water Supply Project. It probed the anomalies and irregularities of the COWD Board of Directors’ actions, to list;

 Bidding for the contract of Bulk Water Supply Project (BWSP) was persistently awarded by the Board of Directors to Rio Verde Water Consortium, Inc. (RVWCI), a non- responsive bidder, despite the recommendation of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for failure of bidding, in violation of RA 9184.

 The contract for BWSP was crafted and awarded apparently for the benefit and undue advantage of the contractor, the RVWCI. The provisions substantially deviated from the model contract and turned onerous in favor of RVWCI.

1. The Approved BWSP Agreement/Contract was substantially different from the Model Contract which was part of the bidding documents. Revisions made were all in favor of the Contractor, RVWCI.
2. The COWD Board of Directors appeared to have amended the contract to accommodate the proposal of the contractor, RVWCI, enlarging the scope of area from the original take-off point of the initial delivery from Lumbia Airport to another location. This could possibly increase the service area of the Contractor in the near future.
3. Parametric formula for Bulk Water Supply Project (BWSP) was revised as embodied in Board of Directors Resolution No. 010, s-05, to accommodate the proposal of the contractor at the disadvantage of public consumers, which could be as much as Php 1.46 per cu.m. of water.

 Fraud was committed in the execution of the Bulk Water Supply Contract as opined by the Government Corporate Counsel after its review.








 COWD Board Resolution No. 096 dated October 21, 2009 requesting for an Interim General Manager from the Local Water Utilities Administration

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We believed that the grounds and basis for said resolution was not meritorious enough and should have been investigated first by LWUA before sending an Interim General Manager. LWUA’s very own guidelines was not followed that, states ;

“ Before any intervention can occur, the Administration (LWUA) shall first conduct an assessment or audit of the water district (WD) to determine precisely the existence and cause of the problem or deficiency. Thereafter, a full report will be submitted to the WD concerned giving it an appropriate time frame to solve the problem or correct the deficiency. Failure on the part of the WD to make or meet all of its commitments may result in the immediate intervention by LWUA. “

The installation of the Interim General Manager was expeditious that there was no assessment done prior to its entry. There was no report submitted by LWUA and COWD was not given the appropriate time to contest such move.

F.L.O.W. strongly opposed to the resolution.

F.L.O.W. and the employees felt deceived by this contravention. These LWUA guidelines were violated by the COWD Board and by LWUA itself. With a sixth member from LWUA already sitting in the COWD Board of Directors, we expected that this protocol should have and must have been strictly adhered to protect the district’s rights and maintain check & balance.

We now have all the indicators to believe that the entry of the Interim General Manager to COWD was so designed via request by the COWD Board to consummate and carry out these questionable if not anomalous transactions. It appeared that the COWD Board wanted a general manager who can and will manage the district via their instructions without opposition and undermining the observations and findings of graft per special report submitted by the Commission on Audit.
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As employees and government workers of a very vital utility which is water service, we have that mandate stipulated under our F.L.O.W.’s constitution and by-laws , that is to protect the integrity of public service and to serve as watchdogs against graft and corruption for a better, wider and upscale drive of good governance.