‘The current administration should have no second thoughts in immediately abolishing DBM’s Procurement Service and ensure the criminal prosecution of its officials involved brazenly in anomalies.’
THE Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management has stuck out as a glowing anomaly and should be abolished before its cancerous tentacles inhabit the entire department. It has fomented several anomalies, certainly of its own creation, involving scarce public money. It has again embraced the center of another reported huge thievery, apparently substantial commissions from the purchase of expensive but outdated laptops by the Department of Educations for teachers.
The Makabayan bloc in Congress said: “The Procurement Service became a breeding ground for graft, corruption, inefficiency and negligence of the duties of other government agencies.” It has joined the loud and angry chorus from the legislative, medical sectors and civic groups for the unit to be axed.
The bloc has filed House Bill No. 3270 which states “the directive of the 1987 Constitution to maintain honesty, integrity and transparency in public service, and Republic Act 9184, or the ‘Government Procurement Act’ which mandates all procurement entities to establish a single bids and awards committee (BAC) have made the PS-DBM archaic and irrelevant.”
The current administration should have no second thoughts in immediately abolishing DBM’s Procurement Service and ensure the criminal prosecution of its officials involved brazenly in anomalies.
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The broadcast industry, especially the more than 11,000 employees so unjustly displaced by the non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s operating franchise by the politically-subservient Congress, enthusiastically welcomes the merger of ABS-CBN and TV5.
The top guns of the two leading networks have just signed a P4 billion agreement which may yet face legal hurdles, especially from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
Under the deal, TV5’s parent company, MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains its controlling stake in TV5 but its share in the company is down to 64.79 percent of its capital stock.
ABS-CBN will spend another P1. 84 billion on a convertible note to be issued by TV5 to increase its common shares in TV5 after eight years and to raise its equity to 49.9 percent of TV5’s capital stock.
The NTC is now monitoring the deal while Infrawatch PH convenor Terry Ridon believes “ABS-CBN and TV5 can overcome any regulatory issues.” He says there is “no basis for the Philippine Competition Commission (PTC) to strike the deal,” as Sagip-Party list Rep. Rodante Marcolerta wants to, because “this does not involve a transaction which will reduce or limit competition.”