Robredo bares overprice by PNP

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Philippine National Police has overpriced by over P1 million its estimated cost of constructing a police station, according to Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Robredo also revealed that the PNP had overpriced its cost estimates for patrol boots and shirts by around P60 million.

The interior secretary made the disclosure as he directed the PNP leadership to lower by 10 percent its approved budget estimates whenever it bids out contracts for the construction of municipal police stations.

The PNP has currently benchmarked the construction cost of type B and C police stations at P5.153 million each.

But Robredo pointed out that the construction of one police station in Catanduanes and two in Camarines Sur were bid out to three different contractors for a total of P10.6 million, or about P3.5 million each.

The three municipal police stations were built in San Jose and Tinambac in Camarines Sur and in San Andres in Catanduanes.

The approved PNP budget estimate for the construction of the three municipal police stations was P15.3 million, so the PNP ended up with “savings” of P4.7 million from the three projects, said Robredo.

An ‘isolated case’

“From the released amount of P15,363,000 to the bidded amount of P10,618,249.68, the savings of P4,744,750.32 can cover the construction of one additional police station in the Bicol region,” Robredo said in his directive to PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome.

Robredo did not accept Bartolome’s explanation that the lower cost of construction for the San Andres police station was an “isolated case,” as reported to him by the PNP Regional Office (PRO) 5 engineering office.

Robredo said the new lower-priced police stations were of the same quality as those built at the much-higher price of P5.1 million.

The project cost estimate of P5.153 million per type B and C police station was reportedly set by the PNP Engineering Service.

Boots and shirts

After evaluation and actual canvassing, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reduced the PNP’s original request of P241.2 million for 90,000 new pairs of boots and shirts to only P180 million.

The PNP pegged the price of boots at P1,980 per pair but the DBM reduced the price to P1,450 per pair.

For 90,000 patrol shirts, the PNP pegged the price at P700 each but the DBM reduced it to P550 per pair.

Funds for the construction of police stations come from the 25 percent share of the PNP from its trust receipts (from income-generating facilities) and these are downloaded to the PNP regional offices for implementation.

Bartolome further reported that any excess funds from the bidding shall be used for “other construction work for the same station” such as a perimeter fence and landscaping.

But according to Robredo, the lower bids in the construction of the three police stations in Bicol was a result of an “honest to goodness bid conducted by PRO 5.”

“You cited this as an isolated case, which is not so, since the bid for the three municipal PNP stations is almost within the range of an average project cost of P3.5 million,” Robredo wrote back.

He said the PNP must lower its approved cost estimate “because having a large agency estimate (AE) may encourage collusion among bidders to cover up or establish bid prices on a noncompetitive level to prevent free and open competition.”

Robredo also said the PNP should not tolerate the practice of using excess funds from the bidded amount for additional work such as perimeter fences.