Highly suspicious, if not illegal.

Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza had this to say about the multi-billion peso fund transfers between the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Daza called attention to these fund transfers in a privilege speech Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 23 at the House of Representatives.

According to Daza, a significant portion of the P12-billion budget that Congress allotted to the DICT for the Free Wi-Fi for All Program were somehow transferred to the MMDA through memorandums of agreement (MOA).

“We were informed recently that about P3 billion to P4 billion of the budget allocation was ‘distributed’ to the MMDA and several LGUs,” he told the House plenary.

While Daza recognized that the transfer of funds may still be executed on good intentions, he harped on Congress’s “sacred duty of sound fiscal management".

“Let’s just hope that our assumption of good faith holds true, otherwise, MMDA may just stand for ‘Money Making from DICT Allocations’,” he said.

“I believe that such inter-agency transfers, without clear guidance from Congress — which is mandated to enact the General Appropriations Act — is highly suspicious, if not illegal,” noted Daza.

'Questionable' spendings

Apart from the actual inter-agency transfer, the minority lawmaker further pointed out the seemingly questionable way the MMDA has spent the funds it received from the DICT.

“Just last November, the MMDA bid out a P1.1-billion project for the NCR Fiber Optic Backbone Development, and is now set to award the contract to the winning company. Do you know how many qualified bidders participated in this high-value project? One. Just one. Of course, this lone bidder won,” he said.

While the bidding documents are available online, the MMDA website does not provide any details about the supposed awarding. Daza, however, quoted a “very reliable source” that the sole, winning bidder was a joint venture between A-WIN and NET PACIFIC, Inc.

“What was the criteria and scoring to determine who was qualified and unqualified for this bidding? Were there even other bidders who were screened?” Daza asked.

He likewise mentioned that A-WIN may be the same company that caused a major accident along EDSA in Mandaluyong during a drilling activity last April.

“If this is the same group, shouldn’t the fact that they accidentally burst a pipe in along a major thoroughfare raise some red flags?” Daza further raised.

He also cited other seemingly overpriced projects and procurements, namely a Landscape Treatment Project for Pocket Parks along EDSA that required only P9.9 million, but ended up with a final budget of P33.2 million; two laptops that cost P181,000; and a tablet worth P121,000.

“If this procurement is deemed illegal, then MMDA needs to do the right thing and revert the funds to DICT or the national treasury,” he concluded.