THE country representative of a joint venture between the Philippines and China, who supplied the “defective” firetrucks of the Bureau of Fire Protection, on Thursday welcomed the investigation to be conducted by the Department of Justice, saying they have nothing to hide and the defects of their firetrucks have been fixed.
“We are very much willing to be investigated by the DoJ,” Peter Go Cheng, Kolonwell Trading chief and authorized country representative of joint venture of Kolonwel Trading and Hubei Jiangnan Special Automobile Co. Ltd., told a press conference in a restaurant in Manila.
Kolonwell is the Philippine counterpart of a joint venture with China firm Hubei Jiangnan Special Automobile Co. Ltd. (Hubei).
“The firetrucks have no factory defects,” Go Cheng added.
“Most of the defects are minor and caused after two years of use and some by untrained BFP personnel,” he said.
“These are being addressed, and most have been fixed,” he said.
BFP Public Information Chief Maj. Ian Manalo also confirmed that all firetrucks that were delivered by Kolonwell and Hubei were in order.
Manalo said even though some have defects, this was because the firetrucks had been used for about two years.
The DoJ is set to investigate the reported anomaly in the P2.577-billion contract for fire trucks that the BFP entered into with Kolonwel Trading and Hubei Jiangnan Special Automobile Co. Ltd., the Filipino-Chinese joint venture during the previous administration.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he would order a probe following the Commission on Audit report, which cited some irregularities in the 2015 deal.
Aguirre said the DoJ had concurrent jurisdiction with the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate corruption charges, citing as precedent the department’s fact-finding probe on the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam during the previous administration.
Go Cheng said the two companies involved in the joint venture already complied with the requirements they were asked to submit, including winning in the pre-qualification and post-qualification bids.
He said all specifications by the Bids and Awards Committee of the BFP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government were all met.
Although they only came in second, the firm that earlier won the bid was disqualified due to failure in some of the specifications made by the Philippine government agencies.
Go Cheng also stressed the firetrucks were delivered in 2015, or more than two years ago, and that warranties of most of the trucks delivered in different dates, had expired.
In inspite of this, he said they had given supplies for free and serviced the vehicles also for free just to help out the BFP and the government, even after the warranties expired.
“The firetrucks have been used for two years now and it is not unusual that some of these would break down after some time,” Go Cheng said.
He also gave as an example any private vehicle being used for a while that would eventually break down unexpectedly.
Go Cheng also claimed some of the firemen were not trained properly, or new personnel took over the firetrucks without even any training, thus these vehicles would break down due to failure to use these properly.
Go Cheng said they had trained the first batch of firemen properly after the delivery of the firetrucks.
But after a while, they were transferred. Some of the new ones who took over were never trained or were lacking in training, thus problems occurred.
He gave assurances they have enough spare parts, and that deliveries of these supplies were continuing.
On the other hand, Go Cheng said they won the bids fairly and the information released through the media earlier about the defects was made by their competitors, the former suppliers and losing bidders.
“I see a grand plan of the competitors (in trying to damage our reputation),” said Go Cheng, saying a new bidding would soon be conducted by the government for the next batch of firetrucks.
He refused to name the competitors, the former suppliers and the losing bidders.
In its recent 155-page audit report, the COA noted several irregularities in the BFP’s procurement deal with the joint venture of Kolonwel Trading and Hubei Jiangnan Special Automobile Co. Ltd.
It found that 37 percent or 176 out of the 469 fire trucks delivered by the consortium were defective.
The contract, entered in to in February 2015, was for the supply of 244 fire trucks with a 1,000-gallon capacity at P6 million each and for 225 units of the 500-gallon capacity at P5 million each.
COA listed 39 defects in at least 176 trucks.
These ranged from simple faults such as damaged side mirrors, busted front and rear lights to more serious ones such as engine shut-off even during operation, sudden unintended swerving and sudden acceleration of engine.
But, Go Cheng said these defects were caused by misuse of the firetrucks by the BFP personnel.
The COA questioned the BFP’s choice of supplier, noting that Kolonwel Trading, the Filipino majority partner in the joint venture, had questionable 60 percent Filipino ownership or interest.
COA also noted that Kolonwel’s declared assets only amounted to P1.4 million in 2012 and P1.6 million in 2013, thus making it “highly unlikely” to put up the P60-million initial funding share agreed upon in its joint venture agreement with Chinese firm Hubei.
