The Commission on Audit has sought an investigation into the questionable purchase by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) of airline tickets for travels of officials and personnel in the past three years.
In the 2019 annual audit report for CHR released on Thursday, COA said “the best interest of the government” has not been protected when the CHR continued to purchase its airline tickets from a “favored travel agent”.
COA said the CHR spent P6,891,436.21 for airline tickets in the past three years from Konail Travel and Tours but the deals have not been covered by a valid contract.
According to the audit agency, this violates the provisions of the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Law.
Auditors also noted that the purchases of plane tickets for 165 travels were made without conforming with the Annual Procurement Plan of CHR and the guidelines set forth for Small Value Procurement as required under RA 9184.
As a result, the CHR has failed to guarantee “that the most advantageous prices for the Government were obtained,” noted COA.
The CHR justified its actions by pointing out that most of the travels to CHR activities “were urgent in nature” and that Konai was the only travel agency that allows credit for its airline tickets.
COA said an investigation must be conducted for the preferential treatment given to Konai.
In the implementation of 18 out of 20 projects in 2019, the CHR also failed to put on paper through contracts the deals it made with the entities involved in the project.
`The 18 projects with a total cost of P17,142,163.81 involved procurement of labor and materials which were implemented through the issuance of purchase orders, instead of “a standard and notarized contract that will clearly define the rights and obligations of the contracting parties.”
“It was also observed that two projects remained uncompleted and terminated as of June 30, 2020 while 13 projects were already completed as at December 31, 2019, but incurred delays along the way,” state auditors observed.
Out of the 20 projects scheduled for implementation last year, only five were completed on time.
The CHR management agreed to implement COA’s recommendation for the use of standard and notarized contracts for future construction projects.