Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Cagayan de Oro: City Hall awards P8-M in bogus deal (9:43 p.m.)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- City Hall awarded an P8 million contract to what appeared as a bogus contractor of educational materials in Cebu, an evaluation of the City Commission Audit (COA) office in Cagayan de Oro showed.
Cagayan de Oro COA Team 1, which audits the City Government's accounts and that of its 80 barangays, recommended that the contract for 25 sets of "Multi-media Instructional Package" be "invalidated" because it violated standard procurement procedures and failed to meet proper bidding process.
Costing P8,600,000 and requested by the Division Office of the Department of Education (DepEd) last year, the project is also hounded by the contractor's questionable identity, and the complete failure of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to conduct proper pre-procurement procedures, the COA evaluation stated.
Pre-procurement activities since mid-2006 to early 2007 showed a series of lapses by the BAC, in which it either submitted wanting documents to COA or did not at all proceed to perform pre-bidding procedures as mandated by Republic Act 9184, otherwise known as the Procurement Act of the Philippines.
In all of its proceedings, the BAC did not even invited the COA or any witnesses -- another violation to RA 9184, noted the auditors. (Danilo V. Adorador III of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro)
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