THE Southern Leyte provincial government tapped 19 technical consultants and four legal consultants in 2022 to the tune of P7.08 million charged against the General Fund but government auditors said the hiring had no legal basis.
First, the audit team said the consultancy contracts did not undergo competitive public bidding as required by the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (RIRR) of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Second, the supposed services rendered by some of the consultants did not require a level of expertise that the existing manpower of the provincial government cannot provide.
Third, several of the consultants could not be considered as “experts” in their field as they turned out to be retired former employees of the provincial capitol, contrary to the definition of “highly technical consultants or primarily confidential or policy determining” under RA 9184.
Fourth, their expected outputs were not mapped out but were only vaguely stated like “inspection and monitoring of projects”; “assist the Governor in the preparation, development, implementation and coordination of all projects and programs”; or “reviewing the PS (personnel services) computation.”
While the law generally limits consultancy contracts to only six months, auditors found that several of the consultants had their contracts renewed repeatedly since 2020.
Among the consultants listed were for tourism, media, energy, chorale, cultural and socio-economic management, technical reviewer of the annual and supplemental budget, cultural and socio-economic management, and disaster program and project monitoring, and local programs and project monitoring.
At the same time, the auditors said the appointment of four legal consultants did not get the prior nod of the Office of the Solicitor General or the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.
“While the hiring of legal consultants without the required acquiescence and concurrence from this Commission renders the transaction without legal basis,” the COA said.
