COA flags PITC for non-deliveries of K9 dogs, other materials needed by agencies

MANILA, Philippines – In 2008, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) placed an order for five drug-sniffing K9s to help catch drug pushers.

Fourteen years later, the dogs, worth an estimated P1.1 million from the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), a government-run procurement entity, have yet to arrive, according to a recently released Commission on Audit (COA) report on the PITC. 

According to COA, separate orders for lab equipment, fabricated armory, and renovation of PDEA’s office building in 2009 have also not yet been completed.

According to the audit report on the PITC, the contract for the 2008 bid for the dogs had been signed seven years later or in 2015. As of 2022, however, the project was documented as still “ongoing implementation.”

The PDEA was not alone in this kind of predicament. It its audit of the PITC, auditors said 13 other agencies had also yet to receive their equipment or other structures. 

“Fund transfers from CYs 2014-2019 on procurement projects amounting to at least P1.094 billion tagged as ‘ongoing implementation’ in CY 2021 are still to be implemented in CY 2022,” state auditors said.

The audit team raised concern over the non-deliveries which were apparently due to “contract suspension, termination, or extension.”

Among those similarly affected by non-deliveries by the PITC were:

• Department of Health (DOH) which paid the PITC P156.78 million in 2016 for the construction of 36 provincial medicine warehouses;
• Philippine Army with three construction and improvement contracts worth P394.12 million in 2019;
• Food and Drug Administration which ordered P142.38 million information technology equipment in 2017;
• Philippine National Police’s order for 114 sniper rifles 7.62mm, and 305 night vision goggles with a combined value of P118.17 million.

“Some contracts were awarded as early as 2011, 2013 and 2015. Also, worth noting is that some of these projects do not involve the construction of infrastructures that may imply stages of work completion. Nevertheless, the considerable amount of time these projects remained unimplemented could not be ignored,” COA said in its report.

The total cost of delayed orders from that period amounted to an alarming P13 billion or more, of which P11.8 billion have been returned to source agencies or remitted to the Bureau of Treasury. 

The PITC told COA that they were coordinating with the 14 agencies to determine if it should still proceed with the procurement or not. – with a report from Ryan Macasero/Rappler.com