Kiko: Firm with $10,000 capital bagged almost P7 billion in deals in 2020

Another undercapitalized firm bagged multi-billion-pesos worth of government contracts for the procurement of pandemic-related medical goods in 2020, Senator Francis Pangilinan disclosed Thursday.

The lawmaker disclosed the information during the continuation of the Senate Blue Ribbon hearing on the alleged overpriced medical supplies procured by the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service in 2020.

“[It was] mentioned earlier about Element [Trading Limited] and the data submitted to us by DBM-PS will show that Element... was about to deliver about P7 billion worth of purchases [for] DBM-PS, [and it] had a capitalization of $10,000,” Pangilinan said.

“Again, the first one had a capitalization of P625,000, Pharmally, now you have a second company with P7 billion worth of contracts with $10,000 capitalization. So clearly the record will show that undercapitalized suppliers, corporations were able to bag billions of pesos worth of contracts,” he added.

According to Pangilinan, Element Trading Limited was incorporated in April 2020 and it has a total delivery of about P6.98 billion to the DBM-PS.

He also surmised that the $10,000 could be in Hong Kong dollars.

A quick web search will show that the DBM-PS has awarded multiple contracts to Element Trade Limited which has an address in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Most of the contracts are for the procurement of COVID-19 RT-PCR kits. -NB, GMA News