COA: Makati City owes private firm P1.12M over unpaid fiesta supplies

The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the City of Makati to pay a private firm P1.12 million for the materials/giveaways used for the Sampiro de Makati Festival Grande Parade in 2015.

In a decision issued in November but was only made available this month, COA granted the petition for money claim worth P1.12 million filed by OVT Graphic Line.

According to COA, the lack of signature of then-suspended Makati Mayor Junjun Binay on the bidding documents recommending approval for the project was not a fault of the petitioner and that the petitioner fulfilled its deliverables even without payment.

“This Commission finds the claim meritorious. OVT delivered the materials and giveaways to the City of Makati amounting to P1,120,000.00,” it said.

“Verily, the procurement of materials and giveaways suffers from legal infirmities. However, the city cannot evade payment and unjustly enrich itself, especially when it admitted that OVT actually delivered the materials and giveaways,” the COA added.

COA was referring to the February 2018 recommendation of the Supervising Auditor of the Office of the City Auditor granting the money claim on the ground that the city benefitted from the delivered materials/giveaways as evidenced by the Certificate of Acceptance.

The state auditors also invoked that it has already decided in two previous cases to grant the contractors’ petitions for money claim for materials and supplies delivered despite legal infirmities, by applying the principle of quantum meruit.

COA explained that a money claim anchored on the principle of quantum meruit must comply with the basic requirement of complete documentation for the payment out of government funds Presidential Decree No. 1445.

Likewise, Rule 8 of the 2009 Revised Rules of Procedure of the COA provides that the Petition for Money Claim should be accompanied by certified true copies of the documents and other relevant supporting papers required therein while COA Circular No. 2012-011 dated October 15, 2012 requires that a Certification of Non-Payment of the claim by the concerned government agency should also be attached.

“To our mind, it would be the apex of injustice and highly inequitable for us to defeat petitioners­-contractors' right to be duly compensated for actual work performed and services rendered, where both the government and the public have, for years, received and accepted benefits from said housing project and reaped the fruits of petitioners-contractors' honest toil and labor,” COA said.

In this case, OVT submitted the following documents:

• acceptance and inspection report
• billing invoice
• certificate of acceptance
• delivery receipts, and
• certificate of non-payment.

"These documents adequately prove its claim. Wherefore, premises considered, the petition for money claim of OVT Graphic Line, Inc., represented by its Owner/Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Erlinda P. Tan, against the City Government of Makati for payment of various materials/giveaways used for the Sampiro de Makati Festival Grande Parade is GRANTED,” the COA said.

“The City Government of Makati is liable to pay OVT Graphic Line, Inc., the amount of P1,120,000.00, subject to availability of funds and the usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations,” COA added.

As a result of the said ruling, COA’s Prosecution and Litigation Office under the Legal Services Sector has also been directed to forward the case to the Office of the Ombudsman for investigation and filing of appropriate charges, if warranted, against the persons liable for the transaction. —KBK, GMA News