COA quizzes DOTC on P320-M spare parts purchase

The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) had spent over P500 million in three years on equipment that only ended up in storage, according to a report by the Commission on Audit (COA). The COA report said the DOTC issued five purchase orders from August 2007 to October 2009 for aids to navigation (ATON) spare parts totaling to P549.7 million. It said the DOTC made the bulk of the purchases last year in three batches amounting to P349.74 million — P199.5 million in May, P49.95 million in August, and P110.28 million in October. The report described the items as “spare parts for lighthouses." All the spare parts were supposedly made in behalf of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), an attached agency under the DOTC, which cannot install them. Government auditors said their inventory showed P320.66 million worth of equipment remained “unutilized," accounting for 58 percent of the total purchase. “It could be inferred that the actual need of the agency for the ATON spare parts was not accurately determined before the same were purchased and transferred by DOTC to PCG," they said. The inventory also showed that P250.25 million worth of spare parts have not been recorded in the books of the PCG, which the COA warned could create an impression of shortage in the Government Equity and Spare Parts Inventory. Auditors likewise questioned DOTC for continuing its buying spree when the August 2007 purchase order showed short deliveries of 168 pieces of Solar Maintenance Free Battery 2V and an over delivery of 168 pieces of Solar Power Energizer with type NS300 2V 10 hour rate of intercell connector. Despite the huge oversupply of spare parts from DOTC, the Coast Guard also bought 10 lamp chargers with flashers, also for lighthouses, amounting to P2.98 million. - KBK, GMANews.TV