By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle
Administrators of the Bohol Irrigation Project Stage-2 (BHIP-2) can be charged of technical malversation of funds for the purchase of two luxury vehicles being used by the governor and a congressman.
The fund used for the vehicle purchase was taken from the irrigation project which was admitted by BHIP-
2 Project Manager Modesto Membreve during an interview over dyRD's top-rated "Inyong Alagad" Monday.
In a separate interview with the radio program, former National Irrigation Authority (NIA) project manager Engr. Petronilo Sarigumba, who is also the whistleblower of the anomalous Talibon Dam, said that Gov. Erico Aumentado and 2nd District Rep. Roberto Cajes are not supposed to get a vehicle since they are not directly involved with the BHIP-2 implementation.
Membreve claimed that that the NIA approved the purchase of seven vehicles for the BHIP-2, out of the ten requested through the Office of the President.
NIA and BHIP-2 officials, Sarigumba said, has no business buying luxury cars for the two government officials since the Bayongan Dam project was bidded out and awarded to Hanjin Heavy Industries above the agency estimates.
The irrigation project is questioned by the National Economic Development Authority-Investment Coordinating Committee (NEDA-ICC) for its cost over-run amounting to P1.2 billion.
Former NEDA boss, now presidential consultant for education, Romulo Neri called the BHIP-2 the most expensive irrigation project of the country, calling the cost over-run as "excessive".
Neri said that continued construction of the BHIP-2 without prior NEDA-ICC endorsement is violative of the law and "illegal".
The Bayongan Dam, Sarigumba pointed out, is "wholly a NIA project and those not directly responsible or involved in the implementation of the project are not entitled to receive a service vehicle."
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