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The COA order follows Primewater Infrastructure Corporation’s submission of documents to support its P24-million claim
MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered a water district in Nueva Ecija to pay a Manny Villar-controlled water utility firm for unpaid shares from collections related to their Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) in 2017.
The COA directed the Jaen Water District (JWD) to pay Primewater Infrastructure Corporation P24.2 million in an en banc ruling.
The JWD and Primewater signed a joint venture agreement on October 28, 2016, involving the financing, development, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the water supply and septage management system in Jaen. Operations began on January 6, 2017.
Since Primewater’s business permit was still pending at that time, all transactions, especially customer payments, were processed using JWD’s official receipt from January 6 to April 15, 2017, even though collections were deposited into Primewater’s bank account. An audit later showed a cash shortage of P7.27 million due to duplicate official receipts.
On October 26, 2017, they signed a memorandum in which Primewater agreed to return the P7.27 million. The agreement also included a full settlement and reconciliation of accounts from January 6 to October 19, 2017, leading to a total amount owed to Primewater of P24.2 million.
In its ruling, the COA cited a September 16, 2021, memorandum from a supervising auditor and audit team leader, confirming that all disbursements made by JWD on behalf of Primewater were in order and fully supported by documents.
The COA initially denied Primewater’s claim on January 27, 2020, due to insufficient supporting documents but informed the company that it could refile once it gathered the necessary documentation.
Primewater subsequently provided daily collection reports, statements of expenses, its business permit, and other documents.
The COA noted, “Primewater submitted sufficient documents to establish the validity of the money claims. It is worth noting that JWD never challenged the aforementioned documents … and admitted the correctness of the amount claimed.” – Rappler.com
