THE Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC) violated provisions of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act when it hired 22 service personnel last year without conducting public bidding or without observing the rules on alternative modes of procurement.
State auditors reminded the HRVVMC that the Commission on Audit should have been notified about the 22 contracts that cost the government P3.342 million as part of the transparency guidelines under the COA-Department of Budget and Management Joint Circular No. 2.
The list of CoS hires showed the agency hired two offline editors, two project coordinators, two project videographer, and education specialist, and one each for the positions of educational program development specialist, researcher in indigenous people, research and acquisition specialist, illustrator, program development, psychological support, museum management specialist, video editor, social media specialist, communications and media relations specialist, and oral historiographer.
“It was noted that seven consultants with the total contract cost of P1,149,500.00 were engaged without observing the competitive bidding. We further noted that 15 consultants were engaged without following the procedures using the alternative mode of procurement. This corresponds to the total contract cost of P2,192,188.72,” the COA said.
The audit team recommended that the Bids and Awards Committee should handle all future procurement processes for the hiring of consultants and that the Executive Director of the agency should spearhead the compliance and implementation of the procurement law.
The HRVVMC is a national government agency created in 2013 “to establish, restore, preserve and conserve a memorial museum, library, and compendium in honor of the human rights violations victims during the Marcos regime.”
However, the COA said the agency has “not achieved much in the last four years” based on its mandate.
This was attributed to HRVVMC’s failure to build the museum infrastructure and lack of readiness and competent museum curators to determine museum worthy items that the agency has acquired.
The COA noted that the commission does not lack funding with a trust fund of P659.246 million and regular allocations in the national budget totaling P134.261 million in the last four years from 2018 to 2021.
