Cebu City Council orders audit

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera | Sangguniang Panlungsod Cebu City – Secretariat

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has ordered an audit of a proposed P3.97-million automatic power switch for City Hall after it was revealed that the cost covers not only the equipment but also a major overhaul of the building’s two-decade-old electrical system.

This was a detail the Department of General Services (DGS) admitted it failed to itemize.

In a recent interview, Councilor Joel Garganera, the proponent of the resolution, said the amount raised eyebrows because an automatic transfer switch (ATS), essentially a breaker that enables seamless switching between power sources, should not cost nearly P4 million.

READ: Cebu City Mayor Archival wants closer look at proposed P3.97M power switch

“It turned out nga ang problema is the amount, which is P3.9 million,” Garganera said in an interview.

(It turned out that the problem is the amount.)

The executive session took place on August 12.

“It’s like a mere breaker ra man na siya. So, ang pangutana gyud, do we really need an automatic transfer switch considering dili baya ni pareha sa hotel, hospital, or BPO nga kinahanglan 24/7 seamless ang power supply?” he added.

(It’s like that is just a mere breaker. So the question really is, do we really need an automatic transfer switch considering that this is not like a hotel, hospital or BPO that needed a 24/7 seamless, the power supply?)

READ: P3.97M power switch proposal: Cebu City Council takes closer look at it

However, further discussions revealed that the figure included not only the ATS unit itself, estimated at around P1 million, but also P2.9 million worth of additional works, including cable replacement and labor costs.

“Twenty years na ang linya sa city hall building. Daghan nata karon ug aircon, computers, and equipment. Kung walay ATS, madaot gyud ang atong equipment like computers kay dili seamless ang pagbalhin sa power source,” Garganera explained.

(The lines of the city hall building are already 20 years. We now have many aircon, computers and equipment. If there is no ATS, our equipment will be damaged like computers, because the transfer of our power source is not seamless.)

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City Hall currently operates with a 300 kilovolt-ampere (KVA) generator, which is insufficient to power all offices during outages.

A 1,000 kilovolt-ampere (KVA) generator donated by CCLEX is set to be installed at the Executive Building. Still, without an automatic transfer switch (ATS), officials fear the transition of the power supply will be unstable.

The DGS, which oversees procurement, admitted during the executive session that it failed to break down the costs properly.

“Nangayo sad pasaylo ang DGS nga wala nila ma-itemize,” Garganera said.

(The DGS also apologized that this was not itemized.)

He noted that the lapse contributed to confusion and skepticism within the council.

The council has since directed the DGS to conduct a full power load audit to determine the actual requirements of the Executive Building before any procurement can proceed.

“Right now, we are still waiting sa power load audit sa DGS,” Garganera said. “They said we need ATS labi na nga daghan tag (especially now that we have a lot of) computers. Under load gyud ang 300 KVA kung mag-brownout (The 300KVA is really under load if there would be a brownout).”

The proposed purchase, formalized by the DGS on June 23, was initially presented to the council in July but was deferred after several councilors, including Nice Archival and Harold Go, raised concerns about its cost and necessity.

Go earlier noted that while an ATS would automatically transfer power during outages, it would not protect sensitive systems, pointing out that each office should also invest in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units.

Mayor Nestor Archival Sr., for his part, said the proposal might be valid but it would still require clarity.

“Depende unsa na, basin ilisan niya tanan, but this is something nga angay ipasabot,” the mayor said, backing the council’s move to ask for a full explanation.

(That will depend what it would be, perhaps, they would change all of it, but this is something that needed to be understood.)

The P3.9-million procurement remains on hold pending the results of the audit and further deliberations.

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