A bidder in the 450-million project for the support and maintenance of tobacco stamps of the Bureau of Internal Revenue has filed a criminal and administrative complaint against officials of a government printer before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Myrna Gonzales, Kolonwel Trading assistant sales manager, filed the complaint against Apo Production Unit Inc. (APUI) chairperson Michael Dalumpines; board of trustees Philip Dionisio, Guilmar Vidanes, Alvin Reyes, Joel Caminede, Joecel Obenza and Jose Julio; and bids and awards committee members Karl Paulo Damian, Josefina Omol, Frederick Tarun, Dominic Tajon, Michael Santiago and Ramon Matibag.
In a 17-page complaint, he said the 13 accused manifested partiality in awarding the contract to the joint venture of IRSIS Corp. and Mara Linux and Business Solutions Inc. despite the recommendation of the technical working group to disqualify them for failure to comply with the procurement procedures.
She said IRSIS and Mara were not able to provide the government printer with the “necessary” information or data in their bid documents as to how they arrived at its bid price of P202,450,113.60, therefore they should be considered “non-responsive” and “automatically disqualified.”
She also accused Dalumpines and the other officials of being biased toward IRSIS and Mara for accepting a similar contract awarded in 2013 despite not even one of them was a bidder.
On Oct. 1, 2019, Gonzales said, Kolonwel filed a request for reconsideration before the office of Dalumpines in qualifying the bidder during the bid’s initial stage, to no avail.
The government printer, however, awarded the contract to IRSIS and Mara on Nov. 22, 2019.
Gonzales said Dalumpines and the 12 other personalities must be held culpable for violation of Section 3(e)of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and administratively liable for gross misconduct.
“The respondents, through their actions, gave unwarranted benefits and advantages to the joint venture of IRSIS Corp. and Mara Linux and Business Solutions Inc. Their actions also show a willful disregard for the established procurement rules,” the complaint read.