By CESAR JOLITO III
Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya ordered a full investigation into the discovery of P1 million worth of unused cement in two warehouses of the Bacolod City Engineer’s Office (CEO) on Saturday, September 6, warning that legal action may be taken against those accountable.
“Heads will roll. This will not be swept under the rug. We cannot and we will not allow this kind of neglect to go unanswered,” Gasataya said in a statement.
He expects a full report within three days to identify those responsible.
The spot inspection at the CEO warehouse inside the Bacolod City College compound on Saturday, revealed 4,686 hardened cement bags, while another 100 were found in a storage facility in Barangay Alijis.
Gasataya called the discovery an “insult to taxpayers.”
“There’s something that needs to be done. This might be painful and there will be resistance, but we will do something out-of-the-box. If this means filing cases, we will do so,” he added.
The mayor’s order for an inventory of government assets led to the finding.
“We will determine when they purchased the supply and why they failed to use it in the city’s projects, which cost at least P1 million,” Gasataya said.
Gasataya expressed disappointment over the discovery, saying the materials could have been used for classrooms, barangay infrastructure and other city projects.
Aside from the squandered financial resources, the mayor asserted that this should serve as an urgent appeal for the government to fortify the city government’s assets and implement a robust system to avert similar occurrences in the future.
To avoid future wastage, the city government has started building a P67-million warehouse in the Bredco area, set for completion this year.
Gasataya also inspected other warehouses in Taculing and Alijis, as well as the Midway Facility, which was built during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now being used as temporary storage for city offices.
Earlier, Gasataya issued a memorandum establishing a team composed of the Internal Audit, General Services Office, and CEO to conduct an inventory of the city’s stocks and supplies.
Meanwhile, CEO officer-in-charge, Engineer Loben Ceballos, admitted that some cement bags had been stored for years, transferred from the old warehouse during the construction of the Bacolod City College.
“We will make the hardened stocks into bedding for the new cement to avoid damage, but due to the volume, this happened,” Ceballos explained.
“But while the construction is ongoing, we cannot avoid having damaged materials,” he added./CJ, WDJ