DOTC: P1B worth of Coast Guard equipment may be overpriced

Over P1.1 billion worth of equipment bought for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in 2007 may have been overpriced, a Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) official said Thursday. The department is now doing an internal audit to see if the Coast Guard equipment for environmental protection and navigation aids was indeed overpriced, Transportation and Communications Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan said on Thursday. “The issue which we have not yet been able to finally conclude is with regard to the possibility of… overprice... We have recommended to the secretary the conduct of a special audit so that we will be able to determine whether the equipment was overpriced," he said in a budget briefing at the House of Representatives. The equipment, which include spare parts for lighthouses, solar panels, solar and halogen bulbs, lamp changers and battery charger controllers, were purchased by virtue of six special allotment releases issued from January to March 2007. The DOTC was then led by Secretary Leandro Mendoza, an appointee of former President and now incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The department had asked the Commission on Audit to check if overpricing was involved in the transactions covering the PCG equipment, but the commission could readily verify the prices since the purchases were done abroad, according to the undersecretary. “While we have initially sought the assistance of the COA, the reply we got is that they were unable to determine if there was overprice because what were involved were imported equipment," he said. Still, the DOTC official said the purchases went through the proper procurement process. "Outstandingly Irregular" Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño however said the DOTC awarded the P1.15 billion worth of contracts covering the PCG equipment to two suppliers, which were supposedly a joint venture. The suppliers were San Juan City-based R.H. Lopez Trading and Manila-based Berlyn Enteprises, Casiño said. “It is outstandingly irregular for the DOTC to award to only two suppliers or contractors that are in a joint venture government contracts worth P1.15 billion despite the availability of many other suppliers... [at] possibly lower prices to the advantage of the government," he said in a separate statement. Some laws, such as the General Appropriations Act and the Government Procurement Reform Law, may have been violated when the DOTC entered into contracts with the suppliers, he added. However, the equipment “have apparently remained idle in the DOTC stockroom and gathering dust as of March 2011," Casiño likewise said. The lawmaker has filed House Resolution 1640 urging the House committee on good government and public accountability to look into the procurement of PCG equipment and see if the transactions were anomalous. — VS, GMA News