The Commission on Audit (COA) has red flagged over P600 million worth of procurement transactions made by the Marikina City government in connection with the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic emergency last year.
The 2020 annual audit report prepared by COA for Marikina City indicated that the city government awarded some P200.51 million in contracts for the purchase of goods during last year’s crisis despite the absence of complete documentation.
Auditors also decried as questionable the observance of transparency in at least P457.66 million procurement deals made by the city government under the emergency purchase process provided under Bayanihan I and Bayanihan II.
COA noted that the city government failed to post relevant information of the transactions in the Government Procurement Policy Board online portal, the city government’s website and other conspicuous places reserved for the said purpose.
The postings should have ensured “transparency and accountability in government procurements”, the audit agency explained.
COA said Mayor Marcelino Teodoro should require the Bidding and Awards Committee (BAC) to comply with the posting requiremetns for government transqactions as required under Republic ACt 9184 or th egovernment Procurement Act to “ensure transparency and accountability.” The audit agency also asked Teodoro to direct the BAC to submit to COA an explanation to justify the “non-posting of information for the procurement projects.” “Contracts for the procurement of goods thru negotiated procurement (emergency cases) with total contract cost of P200,6516,330 were awarded despite incomplete documentation,” the audit report stated.
Audit examiners said complete documentation is a requirement under the Government Procurement Policy Board Circular No. 01-2020; RA 9184 and Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines.
The procurement for the COVID-19 situation were made through emergency purchase transactions, thus, documentary requirements are very important.
“The responsibility in ensuring that the procuring entity abides with the regulation particularly in determining the eligibility of suppliers, is lodged with BAC as provided under Section 12 of the Revised IRR of RA No. 9184,” COA stated.
“Examination of the 48 disbursement vouchers with total contract cost of P200,516,330.00 reveraled that 34 procurement transactions were not supported with Mayor’s Permit and Business/Income Tax returns, while 36 of which had no Omnibus Sworn Statement,” the audit agency reported.
The audit report also noted that delivery of goods for 13 purchase orders totaling P20.585 million in CY 2020 “were made beyond the delivery terms specified in the POs (purchase orders) and total penalties of P.502 million were not imposed on late deliveries.” Marikina’s General Service Office Warehouse head denied there were late deliveries and that the date of the sales invoice was not the actually date of delivery of the purchased goods.