THE Commission on Audit has thrown out the appeal of a private contractor of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), who sought the lifting of the notice of disallowance (ND) issued against a P4.715 million Toboy Bridge project in Mountain Province in 2012.
In a decision released yesterday, the COA Commission Proper said that Domingo Construction’s petition for review cannot be given due course because it was filed way beyond the 180 days allowed for appeals.
The petitioner said the ND was served on November 12, 2012 and the appeal was filed with the COA Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) the following month.
However, the filing fee was only paid nine months later on September 3, 2013, which was considered the official date of filing or 276 days from the last day of November 2012.
When the appeal was ruled out of time, the contractor filed the petition for review on June 20, 2017 before the COA Commission Proper.
“The appeal was perfected, and the RD (regional director) acquired jurisdiction over the appeal, only on September 3, 2013–date of payment of filing fee. The payment of the full amount of the filing fee is required before this Commission or any of its adjudicating bodies can take cognizance of an appeal,” the commission declared.
Likewise, it noted that the petitioner has failed to offer a substantial argument to justify its belated actions asking for relief.
“Failure to interpose a timely appeal renders the appealed decision, order or award final and executory and this deprives the appellate body of any jurisdiction to alter the final judgment, more so, to entertain the appeal,” the COA said.
Even if weighed on merits, COA Chair Michael G. Aguinaldo and Commissioner Roland C. Pondoc upheld the finding of the COA-CAR Technical and Information Technology Services that there was an overestimation of P4,714,890.
They noted that the sum represented the cost difference of sourcing the quarry materials from the nearby Banawel site on Toboy River against hauling them from Alfonso, Ifugao which was eight times farther.
The COA noted that an adjacent road project undertaken on the same period, the concreting of Natonin section of the Mt. Province-Ifugao-Natonin-Toboy-
“(T)here is no justification for the agency to get the aggregates from Namilangan at a higher cost. The overestimated contract cost is considered an excessive expenditure,” the COA added.
