Plunder raps filed vs. DBP president, 4 other officials

A plunder complaint was filed against five high-ranking officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) including its president over the alleged anomalous bidding for the P292.9-million core banking project.

Named respondents in the complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman were DBP president Gil Buenaventura, chief legal counsel Fritzie Tangkia-Fabricante, executive vice president  Anthony Robles, and senior vice presidents Dennis Decena and Nilo Cruz.

The complaint was filed by DBP vice president Mario Pagaragan Jr. and Association of the DBP Career Officials (ADCO) president Francis Romulo Badilla, Jr.

Quoting findings of the Commission on Audit, complainant Francis Badilla said the bidding was rigged to favor the joint venture of Kaisa Consulting Company and Polaris Consulting and Services Limited.

The complainants cited as evidence a Commission on Audit (COA) report that supposedly found out that the bidding for the project was rigged and that the project was overpriced.

“The Commission on Audit conducted an Audit of the herein Integrated Core Banking Solution and COA found out that the procurement was overpriced and tainted with irregularities and violations of Government Procurement Law,” the complaint read.

“The DBP made the technical specifications to favor Polaris Consulting and Services Limited and disqualified all other bidders. It was also found out that the Contract was overpriced,” it added.

The ICBS project aims to fully digitize and harmonize the existing deposit, lending, management information, and various interfaces systems of the DBP to improve its customer services.

The complainants, however, pointed out that in May 2015, the House of Representatives passed a bill approving the merger of DBP and the Land Bank of the Philippines, with the LBP being the surviving entity.

Prior to the passage of the House bill, the complainants further said that on March 25, 2015, the DBP Board of Directors with Buenaventura as the vice chairman issued a resolution for the DBP-Land Bank merger.

“All respondents, by virtue of their position as senior officers of DBP, have full knowledge of the issuance of the DBP Board Resolution merging the LBP and DBP and that, in view of the merger, there is no need for the procurement of a Core Banking Solutions for DBP since LBP has its own Core Banking Solutions,” the complainants said.

Badilla and Pagaragan pointed out that under Section 27 of the CIBS contract, it is stated that the procuring entity, in this case the DBP, may terminate the contract in case of fortuitous events such as “changes in law and/or National Government policies which include the possible merger/consolidation of DBP with another entity”.

“Respondents Fabricante, Decena, Cruz and Robles, despite full knowledge of the foregoing provisions and the approval in the House of Representatives of the merger of LBP and DBP, did nothing to prevent the signing of the said Contract and in fact facilitated the Contract by signing off said Contract,” the complaint read.

The complainants further said that aside from the Board Resolution and the House Bill 5755, President Benigno Aquino III on February 4, 2016 also issued Executive Order 198 formalizing the merger of LBP and DBP.

“In view of the formal merger of the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines, the purchase of the Core Banking Solutions is no longer needed since the Land Bank of the Philippines has its own Core Banking Solutions rendering the purchase of a new one by respondents a misappropriation of public funds and a fraudulent disposition of government asset,” the complaint read.

It was the third complaint filed against DBP president Buenaventura. The first one involved graft over the alleged illegal sale of fP14.3 billion government securities to a private company while the second complaint involved plunder over alleged excessive bonuses amounting to P312.077 million to several DBP officials. —with Virgil Lopez/KBK, GMA News