Caraga transpo dep’t issued firearms missing

By Ben Serrano,
Correspondent

BUTUAN City — A baby armalite, a .38 caliber revolver and other items officially issued to the regional office of the Department of Transportation and Communication-Carag Region have been missing and could not be accounted for, an official report letter of newly appointed officer-in-charge Regional Director Datu Mohammad Nasser Abbas to DOTC Secretary Arthur Tugade reads.

In the letter, Abbas alleged that an auditing team from DOTC central office who came here to Butuan City recently composed of Marilou Ricafort and Eleanor Adelante of the department’s Internal Audit Division found out that a baby armalite, .38 caliber revolver, and several other department properties could not be located anymore.

Dated Sept. 13, Abbas’ letter also reported to Tugade that corruption through “fixing” and irregularities in vehicle registrations at DOTC 13 through “SOP” amounting to P400 per vehicle are still going on in the regional office.

Abbas also claimed in his letter that job order personnel has remained unpaid for two months now. The officer-in-charge also alleged that some previous contracts entered into by the DOTC 13 were illegal.

Abbas lamented that when he started assuming the job as OIC regional director there has been no support from some personnel at the regional office, which bordered on insubordination.

To date, he has yet to sign the clearance of former DOTC 13 regional director Roman Jumawan due to unsettled issues he stated in his letter. Claiming the irregularities practiced before his assumption still laid on Jumawan, Abbas wanted it officially “cleared and clarified first.”

Abbas also complained the limited power of his office to bring in radical reforms in the regional office.

However, Abbas vowed he will continue to seek reforms on whatever limited means available.

Meanwhile, a non-government organization Corruption Watch called for a total revamp, not only in key positions at the DOTC 13 regional office, but also mid-level personnel saying the virus of corruption has already crept deep into the bureaucracy.