DCM signed a contract with CUC on Dec. 12, 2007 to the tune of $5.1 million.
Last week CUC “terminated” DCM’s contract for its inability to perform the needed repairs and overhaul of the seven engines at Power Plant 1.
“I think it’s careless to get into a contract and then terminating it without penalizing DCM,” Atalig said, adding that during his agency’s contractual tenure with CUC, a penalty clause was included in their agreement.
Atalig owns and manages Casa de Felipe Manpower Services, which provided CUC its needed workforce for 10 years.
“You’re dealing with millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money and you’re [not penalizing them],” he said.
The government, he added, should also pursue legal actions against DCM which he accused of not paying its workers for overtime work.
“They should be barred from any future CUC biddings,” he added.
Atalig said some of his former workers who are now with DCM, have quit due to non-payment of their regular services and overtime wages.
Eight of the 20 crewmembers working under DCM for its CUC contract used to be with Case de Felipe.
Earlier, CUC Executive Director Antonio S. Muna said CUC would not invoke the penalty clause against DCM because it had not yet achieved the 90 percent plate capacity of the engines.
A corresponding “non-performance payment charges” for each engine was indicated in the agreement.
Under the contract, CUC may apply the non-performance payment charges against DCM at $78.86 per kilowatt of capacity not achieved.
