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DBM bid out P37-B in consultancy deals sans authority —Andaya


The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has bid out over P37-billion worth of government contracts for consultants in 2018, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya revealed on Thursday.

Citing documents in possession of the House Committee on Rules, Andaya said that three consultancy for subway projects were bid out by the DBM Procurement Service even when it was not mandated to do so.

These documents were turned over to the rules panel when Bingle Gutierrez, executive director of the DBM Procurement Service, testified before the congressional inquiry into the alleged anomalies in the 2019 national budget.

The biggest contract, Andaya said, is worth P14.3 billion for Project Management Consultancy for the PNR South Long Haul Project of the North-South Railway Project, awarded on October 31, 2018.

Another was bidded for General Consultancy for Metro Manila Subway Project Phase 1 (Valenzuela-Parañaque), worth P11.7 billion, awarded on October 18, 2018

The same amount for General Consultancy was bidded for the Metro Manila Subway Project Phase 1 awarded on October 31, 2018.

These P37-billion contracts for consultants were included in the P168-billion fund that the Department of Transportation supposedly obligated to the DBM Procurement Service for the bidding of their projects.

Andaya expressed alarm on these multi-billion procurements, considering that it is not part of the mandate of the DBM Procurement Service.

"Para talagang megamall na ng kontrata ang DBM. Hindi lang mga contractors at suppliers ang pumipila sa DBM para makakuha ng kontrata. Pati pala mga consultants, pumipila na rin doon," he said.

According to Andaya, the 2017 Commission on Audit (COA) report on the DBM Procurement Service stated that government agencies can only procure common use supplies through the office, and that the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System should be used all their procurement activities.

The same COA report also stressed the lack of transparency in the procurement activities of the DBM Procurement Service, saying that the Bids and Awards Committee "did not prepare the Procurement Monitoring Report (PMR), hence, no posting of the PMR was made in government website, disregarding the benefits of procurement tracking and monitoring.”

"Hindi natin alam kung bakit itinatago ng DBM Procurement Service ang kanilang mga Procurement Monitoring Reports. It is the duty of Secretary [Benjamin] Diokno to ensure that these reports are published in the government website as required by law," Andaya said.

Gutierrez said the Government Procurement Reform Act has been their basis in conducting big-ticket projects for other departments, but Andaya pointed out that the DBM Procurement Service's mandate is not part of such law.

"Malinaw ang pagkakasulat ng batas. Malinaw din ang records ng deliberations namin sa paggawa ng nasabing batas. Wala po sa nasabing batas ang mandate ng DBM Procurement Service," he said. —NB, GMA News

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