TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The special committee tasked by Governor Jocel Baac to probe the electric arrears controversy gripping the city passed a resolution calling on the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to conduct a parallel investigation.
Baac created the committee after the Kalinga-Apayao Electric Cooperative (KAELCO caused widespread complaints when it reflected in the February 2017 bills of possibly thousands of consumers including some departments of the Kalinga LGU lumped arrears with no information as to the specific periods the alleged arrears were incurred.
The committee made the decision during the public hearing on March 27 where some consumers presented receipts proving that the arrears being collected from them do not exist and on the other hand, KAELCO management admitted that their records are not fool-proof.
In the specific case of Corazon Alngag, teacher of the Bulo East Elementary School, who related she had to return to the KAELCO office several times since last year over bills in 2016 she had paid but keep surfacing in their bills including the February 2017 bill, Billing Division supervisor Marivic Parungao cited the heavy load of their posting clerk.
She also said that they were then in the transition period of the upgrading of the computer system in February 2016 explaining that when systems are new, errors tend to be committed. She told the committee that she will verify if the payments of Alngag are already posted when she gets back to their office.
Asked by the committee how to reconcile their arrears billings with the receipts of some consumers showing that the alleged unpaid bills were paid, Internal Audit chief Elvie Joven said that these cases could have been due to payments not reported by the Bayad Center and their collectors.
Pressed to categorically state that the records upon which the arrears are based are accurate, Joven said she is not claiming their records are free from errors.
Suspended GM Corazon Tomas who the committee called to the hearing because the controversial bills were issued before she was suspended said that they did everything to perfect their records in line with upgrading of their computerized billing and collection system and did not expect that their attempt to collect the accumulated arrears would bring about problems.
She told the committee that she will request the Acting General Manager Edgar Tipon and the Board to consider the suspension of the collection of the arrears and for the programmer to fix the system first to avoid a repetition of the problem.
Tomas had explained that the P68M accumulated arrears in their books is preventing the cooperative from coping with the standard 95 percent collection efficiency imposed by law thus their decision to reflect the individual arrears of consumers in their February 2017 bills. She said that as of December 31, 2016, the collection efficiency of the cooperative is 90 percent.
For his part, Board President Ruben Tuazon placed some of the blame for the occurrence of the arrears on the Bayad Center opining that the operator may be momentarily holding and using his collections resulting in the chaotic recording and posting.
Earlier in the hearing, Tuazon had admitted that the service agreement with Bigprod Payments Franchise Distributor, the operator of the Bayad Center, was not covered by a Board resolution prompting the committee to advise KAELCO management to immediately stop the service because the contract is void from the start.
The committee also noted the motions of Provincial Board Member Danzel Langkit for the immediate stoppage of the deal with the Bayad Center considering that it was not authorized by the Board and for those involved in the irregularity to be charged administratively and criminally.
Asked for comment, Bayad Center operation Chris Gary Ng explained to the ZigZag Weekly they are issuing manual receipts in instances when the accounts of the customers are not included in the database provided by the KAELCO in 2015 so that the customer will not have to wait while their data are entered into the Bayad Center computer system.
Ng also said that they could not possibly withhold their collections because under the agreement, they pre-pay the utility the amount corresponding to the payments of consumers to the cooperative.
The committee will also request the NEA to extend the tour of duty of Tipon pending the conduct of the parallel investigations. Provincial Legal Officer Kristian Wandag who moderated the public hearing told the ZigZag Weekly that the extension of Tipon is necessary because of the finding that the contract with the Bayad Center was unauthorized.
James Alunday, a former KAELCO official, had proposed the extension of the services of Tipon after informing the committee of alleged anomalies in the power utility including the undertaking of two projects worth millions by two department heads he did not name.
NEA assigned Tipon to take over the reins of the power utility in the duration of the one month suspension of Tomas, Tuazon and three other directors by the NEA over their decision to suspend an employee for alleged malversation without due process. The suspension took effect on March 15.**By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
