MisOr awarded contracts despite incomplete docs — COA

September 26, 2008

By Lizanilla J. Amarga

The Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental violated Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act when it awarded infrastructure project contracts despite the failure of winning contractors to submit all the required supporting documents before the public bidding process begun, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported.

In his recently-released COA Annual Audit Report 2007, COA-Misamis Oriental provincial auditor Florentino Nueva said they found out how personnel from the Provincial Engineer’s Office still have to call for the contractor to comply with some lacking supporting papers.

He said this practice is an indication that contracts for infrastructure projects were approved without strictly following the provisions of the above law and that there was a “failure in the conduct of eligibility checking of prospective bidders but still pushed-through with the public bidding.”

“The Auditor/s concerned were not informed by the agency (Provincial Government) of any eligibility checking schedule nor were there any invitations for the attendance of a representative except during public bidding where only the 2nd envelope or the bid proposals were opened,” his report reads.

Nueva said they have discovered that contracts had long been approved before such were submitted to the Office of the Provincial Auditor for review.

“It was also further observed that most of the time, if not all, the implementation of the projects were already 100% completed upon submission by the agency (Provincial Government) of the contract for review,” his report reads.

Nueva said the incompleteness in the submission of required documents was also blamed as to why the Provincial Government also violated COA Circular No. 87-278 that mandates all government agencies to submit infrastructure project contracts to the COA auditors within five days from its approval for the conduct of timely review and evaluation of the perfected contracts.

He said the defects and deficiencies noted in the course of evaluation and review may still be recouped before the completion of the projects.

He added that the submissions of these contracts are a prerequisite of their Technical Services Office for the actual inspection of the project.

Misamis Oriental acting provincial auditor Divina Bade vowed that the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) has “duly noted” all the COA findings and recommendations including how all documents must be intact and ready prior to the conduct of bidding and to ensure the submission of these copies to the COA within five days.

“Nevertheless, all legal documents and technical proposal have been duly complied with before any payment to contracts was made,” she said.

Still, Nueva made a rejoinder saying, “Even if all documents and technical proposals had been duly complied with before payments are made, still we cannot do away with the provisions of RA 9184 and that is complete documentation to facilitate approval of the contract by the head of the procuring entity.”

Because of this, he is recommending that the BAC, being directly responsible for the completeness of documentation, should see to it that those required documents are intact before the perfection of the contracts by the Local Chief Executive.

Nueva said the Provincial Engineer, as the department head directly incharged in the implementation of the project, should strictly ensure that all supporting documents are complete before its implementation.

“Management should strictly monitor the submission of contracts to the Provincial Auditor within five (5) working days from its approval for timely review and evaluation,” he said.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Misamis Oriental