Findings No.7 COA Annual Audit Report 2006

July 25, 2008

7. The Province have not adequately planned their Annual Procurement because of the lack of coordination between offices which is contrary to the provision of Section 7 and 12 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9184 thus, numerous Purchase Request, Purchase Orders and supporting documents were prepared and processed daily resulting to tedious encoding of the inventories for the computerized accounting system notwithstanding the incurrence of more expenses for the office supplies used in printing the supporting documents.

As provided under Section 7 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184, “Each procuring entity shall judiciously prepare, maintain and update an Annual Procurement Plan (APP) for all its procurement that shall include, for each individual project, a Project Procurement Management Plan (PPMP). No government procurement shall be undertaken unless it is in accordance with the approved Annual Procurement Plan (APP). The preparation and updating of the PPMPs shall be the responsibility of the respective Project Management Offices (PMOs) or end users while the consolidation of these PPMPs into an APP shall be lodged with the BAC Secretariat of that procuring entity. Meanwhile, Section 12 of the same act also states “ In proper cases, the BAC shall also recommend to the Head of the procuring entity the use of alternative methods of procurement as provided for in Rule XVI hereof. The BAC shall be responsible for ensuring that the procuring entity abides by the standards set forth by the Act and this IRR.

Per record of the Provincial General Services Officer, average Purchase Request (PR) and Purchase Orders (PO) received and processed per month are 154 and 165, respectively.(Annex 3) The province is composed of only 20 departments/offices. The figures suggested that the offices prepared at least 7 PRs per month. In the interview, the Provincial General Services Officer pointed out that implementing offices of projects did not prepare the Project Procurement Management Plan (PPMP). Purchase Request was prepared by requisitioning office as they wish. The Province has not set specific schedules for the submission of PRs for bulk procurement. While, they have prepared the procurement plan of office supplies, PRs were not checked against the submitted Annual Procurement Plan. Nobody was assigned to do the job. Such voluminous paper works could be avoided if each office could consolidate their office requirement in reduced no. of Purchase Request.

Scrutiny of the Disbursement Vouchers of the Province revealed numerous Purchase Orders were based on the shopping mode of procurement. Many of them are spare parts, medicines and drugs, laboratory supplies, and others. According to the Provincial General Services Officer (PGSO), Province did not adopt purchase from Procurement Service due to the distance and the cost that would be incurred in the travel. But, they have adopted public bidding for the purchase of regular office supplies, drugs, medicines, medical and laboratory supplies. Purchase Request charged to the projects under the 20% Development fund, Trust Funds and SEF were usually purchased thru the use of alternative methods of procurement except infrastructure projects. Selection as to what mode of procurement will be used is per PR and it was decided upon by the PGSO. They did not practice consolidating the PRs received. Conditions specified under the shopping mode of procurement were usually not considered in the selection.

On the other hand, Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) members complained that they would not be able to perform their regular functions if all the PRs would pass thru the BAC for the selection of mode of procurement.

Nevertheless, it is stated in Section 7.3 of Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184 that the PPMP shall include:

a) the type of contract to be employed,

b) the extent /size of contract scopes/packages;

c) procurement methods to be adopted

d) time schedule for each procurement activity

e) Estimated budget for the general components of the contract.

Based on the above-quoted regulation, selection of the mode of procurement would be done during the planning stage so it won’t really affect much their performance of regular functions.

The Head of the BAC Secretariat have reasoned out that their Office have not received any PPMP therefore nothing will be consolidated.

This condition resulted from the lack of coordination between the component offices of the Province.

RECOMMENDATION:

Require the project implementing office to prepare the PPMP to be submitted to BAC Secretariat for consolidation and incorporation in the Annual Procurement Program. Further, require PGSO to practice bulk procurement to economize in the cost of office supplies and to avoid the tedious encoding of the inventories in the computerized accounting system. Adherence to the provision or Section 7 and 12 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 9184 is hereby enjoined.

Written by admin · Filed Under Camiguin, Commission on Audit