Discrepancy in garbage billing data from hauler questioned

CEBU, Philippines - Barug Team Rama councilors are questioning the alleged “discrepancy” between the data submitted by the city’s garbage hauling contractor to the Department of Public Services (DPS) and the hauling records kept by the company’s subcontractor.

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera presented a copy of a document which shows the alleged discrepancies.

 He claims he got the document from EVO Enviro Solutions Inc., a private transfer station subcontracted by Pasajero Motors Corporation (Pamocor), the company tasked to haul the city’s generated trash.

The document showed that for June 22 alone, EVO hauled about 393.34 tons of garbage while DPS records, based on billings submitted by Pamocor, showed the total tonnage of garbage hauled at 785.29 tons for the same date.

The document details discrepancies from June 22 to July 14, with a total variance of 6.5 million tons of garbage collected.

EVO is the only private transfer company subcontracted by Pamocor for the latter’s garbage hauling contract with the city government.

It was Garganera who noticed the alleged discrepancy after he compared EVO’s and Pamocor’s record.

To recall, DPS submitted Pamocor’s billing report at the request of the City Council.

“This is serious, I need an answer, the one in charge from DPS ani, ngano in-ani man ni ang figure,” Garganera said.

Councilor Jose Daluz III pointed out that the record of EVO and Pamocor should coincide.

Garganera added that both EVO and Pamocor are supposed to base their data on the waste manifest issued by the private-owned landfill in Consolacion, which is the final disposal site.

Garganera said there is gross negligence from the concerned offices in addressing the matter, emphasizing that there is no way for the city government to countercheck the billing from Pamocor given that the city does not have its own weighing scale.

Garganera further said DPS ignored their suggestion to assign government personnel at the landfill to monitor since the garbage hauled was being weighed, adding that he does not believe the department’s claim that city government personnel were not allowed to enter the premises of the Consolacion landfill.

The camp is calling the attention of the Commission on Audit to look into the issue.

Daluz said that they will bring the matter up before the council to create a fact-finding committee as earlier suggested by Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan councilor Alvin Arcilla.

In a separate interview, Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña questions the integrity of the data presented by Garganera.  She said the opposition councilors have to clarify the data they got considering that there is no proof that would show that it really comes from the transfer station.

“Those are not DPS figures, those are the billing of Pamocor, what the Pamocor bills is how many tons they haul to the landfill,” she added.

Osmeña added they have assigned DPS personnel at EVO to monitor the operation of the transfer station.

On the issue of the weighing scale, she explained that it was just two months ago that the weighing scale was rendered unserviceable, adding that it was too old and could only accommodate 30 tons of garbage.

They are pushing for the procurement of a new weighing scale which costs P3 million that will be sourced from the local development fund.

DPS Assistant head John Paul Gelasque pointed out that even during the previous administration, there were no city government personnel allowed to enter the premises of the landfill.

To recall, during the administration of former mayor Michael Rama, Gelasque was assigned in Consolacion to monitor the hauling.

To address the issue and for the renewal of the contract with the Consolacion landfill, the city government will stipulate that government personnel be allowed inside the facility to conduct monitoring. (FREEMAN)