SENATE minority leader Franklin Drilon wants a provision in the 2022 General Appropriations Act that will prohibit government agencies from “parking” funds in the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management and the Philippine International Trade Corporation.
Drilon, during Wednesday’s budget briefing of the DBM’s proposed budget for 2022, said a number of government agencies “park” their funds in the PS-DBM and PITC to make it appear that they have disbursed them to skirt procurement laws and expiration of authority to use the funds.
This practice, he added, prevents the budget from being properly utilized, thus slowing down the country’s economic growth.
The PS-DBM is mandated to procure common use supplies and equipment but got involved in the purchase of other items such as face masks, face shields, and personal protective equipment (PPE) at the onset of the pandemic last year.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has been conducting investigations on the alleged overpriced purchases of face masks, face shields, and PPE units supplied by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.
Undersecretary Tina Canda, DBM officer-in-charge, welcomed Drilon’s proposal, and added that the PS-DBM should stick to its mandate of purchasing common-use supplies and equipment so that huge amounts of money cannot be parked in it.
“We have veered away from the very mandate of the procurement services. The procurement is supposed to be for common use supplies… There is no really excuse for agencies to transfer these funds,” Canda said.
Drilon said that based on his computation, there were about P91.8 billion parked funds in the PS-DBM between 2017 and 2017, while based on PITC records, some P50.7 billion has been received by the agency from 2014 to 2020, of which P33 billion (65 percent) constitutes government accounts and P17 billion (35 percent) make up military accounts.
He said the DBM should come up with a budget circular and proposed general provision in the national budget which will disallow the anomalous transfer of funds.
Canda said: “If we prohibit the Procurement Service (from doing that) and allow the agencies to make their procurement insofar as their big-ticket projects, the bulk of these funds would definitely not be that huge.”
She added that in the past administration, the DBM worked to strengthen bids and awards committees (BACs) and encouraged departments to have more BACs to help in their procurement.
MORE OVERPRICING
Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday said equipment inside overpriced ambulances bought by the Department of Health were also overpriced.
Lacson bared this as the Senate committee on finance discussed the P242-billion proposed budget of the DOH for next year.
He earlier said the DOH-bought ambulances were overpriced by at least P1 million each, 98 units of which were already distributed in the Southern Tagalog region.
Lacson said the ambulance equipment — automated external defibrillators (AEDs), mobile phones, and dashboard cameras — were overpriced compared to the same items being sold in stores or bought by local government units.
He said the AEDs bought by the DOH were priced at P165,000 each when its retail price was at P96,500, a markup of P68,000; two mobile phones with SIM cards were purchased by the DOH at P30,000 but LGUs bought the same for P7,998 each.
He said the dashboard cameras were purchased for P15,000 each but a check from other sources showed it can be bought for P4,500 each; while the stretchers cost P23,800 each compared to P21,200 in other stores.
“These are the things we want explained by the department so this will not happen again,” Lacson said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Lacson was right with his observations and ordered his staff to look into it, adding that he needs a brand-to-brand comparison.
Lacson earlier said the DOH purchased ambulances at P2.5 million each but LGUs purchased the same for only P1.27 million each.
The DOH has defended the purchase, saying the deal was awarded to the lowest bidder.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire has said the agency bought Type 1 ambulances which are equipped with machines and other medical supplies, adding that the amount also covered the training of the driver and health workers who would man the ambulance.
Lacson also pushed for the inclusion of a special risk allowance-type of assistance to personnel outsourced by hospitals to make sure they are properly compensated.
“Our advice to hospitals that outsource their personnel is to include in their contracts an SRA-type of assistance,” he added.
