GRAFT and corruption complaints have been filed against Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Eduardo B. Gongona and two other officials of BFAR’s bids and awards committee in connection with the alleged anomalous award of the contract to a British company to supply Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) transceivers.
The transceivers are a vital component needed to implement the agency’s more than P2-billion Integrated Marine Environment Monitoring System Project II aimed at improving the agency’s mandate of safeguarding and monitoring the country’s maritime resources.
In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Ombudsman, lawyer James Mier Victoriano accused Gongona, along with Demosthenes R. Escoto and Hansel O. Didulo, of conspiring with private respondents for the irregular award of the project to SRT Marine Systems Solutions Ltd (SRT), in violation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, RA 9184 or Government Procurement Reform Act and its revised implementing rules and regulation.
Escoto and Didulo served as chairpersons of the Bids and Awards Committee of the Department of Agriculture-BFAR during the bidding of the controversial IMEMS project.
Also named respondents were Britons Simon Tucker and Richard Hurd, chief executive officer and chief financial officer, respectively of SRT Marine Systems Solutions Ltd., which won the bid to supply 5,000 units of VMS transceivers or two-way transmitters for P2,096,989,000, a little lower than the P2,097,819,000 project cost.
The complainant alleged that Gongona, Escoto and Didulo violated provisions of RA 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 and the anti-graft law for causing undue injury to the government and giving unwarranted benefits, advantage, and preference to SRT in awarding the project, and entering into a transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the government despite knowing that SRT is ineligible to participate in the bidding of the project.
The complainant also sought the preventive suspension of Didulo and Escoto.
The controversy arose after the BFAR awarded the contract to SRT for the procurement of 5,000 units of VMS to implement the agency’s IMEMS Project Phase II, which aims to enhance the government’s capability to safeguard and monitor the country’s marine resources and combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities. It seeks to improve the existing Monitoring Control and Surveillance (“MCS”) programs of BFAR, whose mandate is to protect, conserve, and properly manage the Philippine marine resources.
In particular, the IMEMS project aims to institutionalize VMS for commercial fishing vessels — catcher, carrier, and support vessels — which are gross ton and above operating within and beyond the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone by providing and installing 5,000 VMS transmitters.
Initially, the approved budget for the project was ₱1,675,889,000 for the procurement of 2,500 VMS transmitters for catcher fishing vessels and 1,000 one-way satellite transmitters for fishing vessels above 30 gross tons.
Since the funding of the IMEMS project would be provided through a loan from the French Republic, participating bidders were required to have a joint venture agreement with any French companies registered and operating under the pertinent laws of France dealing with such service; the origin of goods and services must be from France. On December 18, 2015, the Philippines and France signed a loan agreement amounting to 28,520,000 Euros or P1,700,077,200.
The French government, however, disapproved SRT as the winning bidder, prompting the BFAR to seek the approval of NEDA to cancel the loan agreement with France and proceed with the project using local funding.
BFAR conducted the last bidding on October 30, 2018, this time with an approved budget of ₱2,097,819,000. The supplier was required to deliver the goods within four years from the date of receipt of notice to proceed and in accordance with the project implementation schedule provided in the bidding documents.
SRT won the bid with ₱2,096,989,000 on November 26, 2018. Under the terms of payment, the supplier will be paid P50,000,000 for the first year; P672,639,000 for the second year; P1,113,924,000 for the third year, and P261,256,000 for the fourth year.
However, based on Commission on Audit’s Observation and Recommendations on BFAR’s 2019 Audit, the payments for SRT were among the three Notices of Suspension pertaining to disbursements under the Fisheries and Regulatory Enforcement Program (“FRLEP”) which were not supported by complete documents. The total payments already paid to SRT amounted to ₱738,124,000.00 as of Dec. 31, 2019.
