URDANETA City’s engagement of 22 consultants in 2020 did not comply with procurement laws, government auditors said.
In the 2020 audit released May 7, 2021, the audit team found the hiring of additional manpower was contrary to the provisions of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act and the Joint Circular No. 1 series of 2017 issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the Commission on Audit (COA), and the Department of Budget and management (DBM).
Under RA 9184, procurement of consultancy services was supposed to undergo competitive bidding.
The CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular stated that consultants must render services that are “not part of the regular functions of the agency.” It likewise clarified that job order or contract of service personnel should not be assigned to perform functions that are considered part of the job description of regular employees.
Records showed the city hired 14 “special advisers” for various offices, including Financial Affairs, Legal Affairs, Security Concerns, and Public Relations in addition to eight others in various designations.
These were paid P15,000 to P40,000 “depending on the expertise they provide.”
However, auditors questioned the lack of job description and ambiguous periods of service in their contracts.
“Further, scrutiny of the COS of these individuals showed no other information except for their titles which if seen at a glance connotes basically to perform functions that are already lodged with other Offices of the City Government, hence, their services are deemed unnecessary,” the audit team said.
The COA has already issued notices of disallowance on the payment of honoraria to several of the consultants on the ground that the expense item was “illegal.” A notice of disallowance includes a directive that the amount disallowed be refunded by the employees or entities held liable.
