Procurement Service held onto Billions of funds for Supplies and Equipment going back years

[ASEAN NOW News]

 

The Commission on Audit (COA) has told the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to return to the national treasury a total of P10.87 billion in advance payments it received from various client agencies for the procurement of common-use supplies and equipment (CSE).

 

In its 2020 annual audit report on the PS-DBM, the COA noted that the payments remain idle with the PS-DBM for two years to more than four years already as of Dec. 31, 2020.

 

The COA said the advance payments were made by national government agencies (NGAs), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and local government units (LGUs) through fund transfers to PS-DBM for the procurement of their CSE requirements.

 

However, the COA said that as of the end of 2020, the items remained undelivered, or the funds remained unutilized by PS-DBM.

 

“Inter-agency transferred funds and (other payables) totaling P10.870 billion pertaining to advances for CSE which remained undelivered/unutilized and dormant for years were still not remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury, thus, depriving the government the use of funds in the implementation of its project/programs,” the audit report read.

 

The COA's breakdown showed that P10.497 billion of the fund transfers were from NGAs, P331.322 million from GOCCs and P35.727 million from LGUs, for a total of P10.864 billion.

 

Of these fund transfers, a total of P8.946 billion was idle with PS-DBM for four years and above, while P1.918 billion was idle for two to three years.

 

Dormant funds from 2011

 

Moreover, the COA said there was also a total of P5.957 million in deposits from unidentified client agencies which remain dormant at PS-DBM's bank account with Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) since 2011.

 

“These agencies did not even bother to inform the PS of the deposits they made. Similarly, the LBP has no records of the agencies who made the deposits. Almost a decade has lapsed, yet no client- agencies had validly claimed their deposits to the PS,” the COA said.

 

“The non-remittance of the total advances of P10.870 billion (P10.864 billion + P5.957 million) representing unutilized or undelivered CSEs and unidentified depositors, in the books, deprived the government of the use of funds in the implementation of its project/programs,” it added.

 

 

The audit body said the PS-DBM management has already agreed to its recommendation to remit to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) the entire P10.87 billion.

 

The COA said the PS-DBM also agreed to instruct its officer-in-charge (OIC) chief accountant to inform the client agencies about the impending remittance of their payments to the BTr “so that proper adjustments will be made in the client agencies’ respective books of accounts.”

 

Failure on Masks

 

It was in the same audit report that the COA also flagged the PS-DBM over its failure to deliver P95.46-million worth of surgical masks and face shields at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

 

The COA said that as the supply was still scarce in April to May 2020, the items were procured by PS-DBM from private suppliers at very high prices ranging from P16 to P27.72 per piece of surgical mask and P120 each for face shield.

 

The COA said that while the items were delivered to PS-DBM Main Office as early as May 2020, they were not immediately delivered to the regional depots (RDs) to be sold to government agencies.

 

The COA said the items remained undelivered to the RDs until the market prices have already gone down and with the Department of Health (DOH) issuing a Revised Suggested Retail Price (SRP) on September 9, 2020, setting a price cap of P2 to P4 per piece of surgical mask and P26 to P50 per piece of face shield.

 

The COA noted that as of Dec. 31, 2020, there were 2,529,700 pieces of surgical masks and 483,333 pieces of face shiels which remained unsold and idle at the PS-DBM Main Depot while 230,867 pieces of surgical masks and 1,569 pieces of face shields remained at various RDs. The idle items amounted to P95.46 million.