NEA wants ex-BENECO directors probed
By By Maria Romero – Sunday, 26 February 2023
from Daily Tribune
The NEA has apprised the DOJ of the results of the motu propio investigations conducted due to the adverse findings/observations on the financial and management audit conducted on BENECO.
Photo shows the Baguio City office of Benguet Electric Cooperative whose board of directors were removed from their posts by the National Electrification Administration in January on the basis of findings of long-standing irregularities in BENECO’s management. | photograph courtesy of fb.com/beneco
The National Electrification Administration is asking the Department of Justice to launch an investigation for possible criminal acts and/or other irregularities conducted by former members of the Benguet Electric Cooperative Board of Directors and Management officials.
In its letter to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla dated 21 February, NEA apprised the DoJ of the result of the motu proprio investigations conducted due to the adverse findings/observations on the financial and management audit conducted on BENECO.
In January, the NEA, through its Board of Administrators, ordered the removal of BENECO’s Board of Directors based on findings of long-standing irregularities in the management of BENECO.
It also suspended BENECO Assistant General Manager Engr. Melchor Licoben for 45 days for being administratively liable for simple negligence as a first offense.
“Although the administrative cases were limited to the administrative liabilities of the respondents, the matters unearthed therein strongly suggest that there was criminal fraud committed by said respondents that resulted in the damage of BENECO, especially its member-consumer-owners,” NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda pointed out in the letter.
It was further noted that the substantial amounts involved in the transactions and the apparent unlawful abuse of confidence within BENECO might be a result of a criminal conspiracy to the damage and prejudice of the electric cooperative and its member-consumer-owners.
The letter request for a fact-finding investigation and other relevant documents, which may be needed in the conduct of an investigation, were submitted to the DOJ on 22 February.
The franchise area of BENECO comprises the 13 towns of Benguet Province — composed of 140 barangays and 129 barangays in the City of Baguio for a total of 269 barangays.
