THE Office of the Ombudsman has indicted the president of the Davao Oriental State College over bidding anomalies.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio- Morales found probable cause to pursue charges of violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corruption Practices Act and non-compliance RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Act in undertaking a project in 2006 against president Jonathan Bayogan, bids and awards committee chairperson; Airma Ladera, chairperson of the bids and awards committee; Vivian Labasano, officer in charge-director for administrative services, and bids and awards committee members.
Based on the Ombudsman-Mindanao field investigation unit in March 2006, the school management procured supplies and equipment for its Funda laboratory without a public bidding and any approved budget for the contract.
Procurement documents showed the respondents obtained quotations from three suppliers and immediately opened their bids.
Despite such, after the opening of quotations, the respondents allowed another bidder, Multilab, to submit its offer and eventually awarded the project to the latter through the alternative method of shopping.
The quotations showed the offers ranged from P225,000 to P300,000 —budgets which were beyond the procurement thresholds through shopping prevailing at that time.
Applicable procurement regulations in 2006 required that for projects with ABCs exceeding P250,000, a procuring entity must conduct competitive bidding.
“Without public bidding, the government was denied [of] other reasonable prices and quality goods from other suppliers. In fact, the defibrillator supplied by Multilab was defective,” Morales said in a resolution.