AMID the controversies issues hounding the billion-peso acquisitions of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), Sen. Francis Tolentino yesterday proposed that its acquisition functions be limited to commonly used items only.
In an interview with radio dzBB, Tolentino said he will recommend that government agencies frequently tapping the services of the PS-DBM to stop passing their procurement requirements to the office, pointing out that all government offices have their respective Bids and Awards Committee.
Tolentino, who is the chairperson of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, made the pitch amid the ongoing investigations on the issues related to the PS-DBM’s purchase of pricey and outdated laptops for the Department of Education.
Tolentino noted that the PS-DBM was created during the administration of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. to “centralize” the procurement of commonly used supplies and equipment for government agencies since it buys in bulk, saving billions of government money.
But lately, the senator said the PS-DBM has allegedly “specialized” in purchasing items for other agencies which are not commonly used.
“At dito na nagkaroon ng mga problema (And this was when the problems started),” Tolentino said.
Several lawmakers have called for the abolition of the PS-DBM after it got involved in controversies, including its overpriced purchase for the Department of Health of pandemic supplies from the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation which only had a paid-up capital of P625,000, and now the pricey and outdated laptops for the DepEd, among others.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros has also said the PS-DBM has become a “breeding ground for corruption.”
Citing an annual report from the Commission on Audit in 2021, Hontiveros said the COA flagged the PS-DBM for its failure to provide proof of purchases or non-delivery of some P1.696 billion between 2010 to 2021 to the Philippine National Police; P795 million for the Department of Agrarian Reform; P704.9 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; and P60.36 million for the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
Tolentino said while a law has yet to be passed and approved for the abolition of the PS-DBM, reforms need to be made within the procurement agency.
“Kung reporma, ‘yun na ang RA 9184. Again, hindi ako makaka-decide mag -isa diyan. Ang nakikita ko rito ilagay sa tamang kapangyarihan lang siya, hindi ‘yung napakalawak at lahat nasasaklaw. Then again, ‘yung dating kapangyarihan niya ay kaya nang gawin ng iba’t ibang ahensiya. Kapag pinagsama-sama mo ang procuring entities in all agencies and LGUs baka time 100 ang tao na ‘yun kumpara sa kanila (If we are talking of reforms, RA 9184 [Government Procurement Reform Act] will come in. But I am not the only one who will decide on that. What I see is we reduce its power [to purchase] and not allow it to cover all other things. Its function can be performed by the various government agencies. If we add up the procuring entities in all agencies and local government units, they might be a hundred times more than the personnel of the PS-DBM),” Tolentino said.
“Yun (The) specialization lies within the end user agency, not with the PS-DBM,” he added.
Tolentino also said that while he is open to cutting the proposed 2023 budget of the agency, the calls of some lawmakers to give the PS-DBM a P1 budget next year needs thorough study since it will affect the salaries of its employees.
Tolentino also took exception to reports that the PS-DBM has “invested” the money to high-yield deposits from various government agencies given to the agency, saying the PS-DBM has no authority to invest such monies.
“Wala na ‘yan sa mandato nila. Kanino mapupunta ang income? Paano ang pagbabayad ng buwis doon? Ang mga ganoon ay komplikado na (That is not within its mandate anymore. Where will the income [from the investments] go? How will it go about paying the appropriate taxes? That’s complicated),” he said.
“Hindi ko pa masabi kung ano ang legal implication ng ginawa nila dahil wala sa amin ang records at wala sa jurisdiction namin yun. Siguro maaaring mabuksan o madaplisan ang ating ihi-hearing kung ano lang ang ni-refer (I cannot say what the legal implications are with what the PS-DBM did because we do not have the records and it is not within our jurisdiction. We can only open a topic during the hearing if a matter was referred to the committee),” he said.
Tolentino has scheduled the second hearing on the pricey and outdated laptops on Thursday where they will tackle the bidding and awarding stages of the contract.
