THE Commission on Audit has flagged the Municipality of Itogon for a supposed violation of procurement law and for ‘unaccounted’ welfare goods distribution to residents during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).
Primarily, the Municipality ‘violated’ Section 10 of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Government Procurement Act (RA 9184) and the provisions of Bayanihan Grant to Heal as One Act (RA 11469), and GPPB Circular 01-2020 in its procurement of Millions of pesos worth of food and non-food items without public bidding, and only by virtue of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) from 2019.
The goods procured out of the LGU’s LDRRM funds are for the affected families during the implementation of the ECQ.
According to the report, the procurement of goods based on an old MoA is contrary to the principle of competitiveness. In addition, the MoA does not include a warranty clause, which puts the LGU at risk with no means to legally recoup any loss in case of non-compliance by the supplier.
As a result, the people of Itogon were not assured that the most advantageous price was availed and that legally, technically and financially capable suppliers were deprived of equal opportunities to participate in the procurement process
The Municipality was also flagged by CoA for unaccounted millions of pesos worth of various welfare goods distributed during the ECQ.
In its CY2020 Audit Report, CoA states that the verification of the distribution lists disclosed that, except for one barangay, the distributed items were not acknowledged by the beneficiaries in the other eight barangay.
Also, it was observed that the description and quantity of the distributed goods were not indicated. Absence of such itemized list of goods distributed to beneficiaries did not ensure the procured items were fully accounted for.
Source: COA Annual Audit Report on the Municipality of Itogon CY 2020 (pp. 53 – 58)
