House probe on PNP’s questionable P1B deal with private firm pushed

MANILA, Philippines—Lawmakers on Tuesday urged the House committee on public order and safety for the investigation into an allegedly anomalous P1 billion license deal that the Philippine National Police entered with a private firm.

Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao Party-list Representative Maximo Rodriguez Jr. said an investigation should be done since the PNP allegedly failed to conduct proper bidding when it signed back in March 2010 a memorandum of agreement with Nanjing Industrial Tools and Equipment Co. for the printing of service firearms license cards for police and security guards.

The two lawmakers authored House Resolution 2459 and asked the committee to summon the police officials, Nanjing representatives and other officers of concerned government agencies during the course of the investigation.

PNP’s contract with Nanjing indicated that the latter would print license cards priced at P150 each. The MOA covers 15 years of the said service which amounted to P1.135 billion.

The MOA’s signatories are former PNP chief Jesus Versoza, PNP director for logistics Luizo Ticman and Romeo Macapinlac, president of Nanjing.

“One such provision that merits review states that the P150 fee for license cards be paid directly to Nanjing without a standard government payment order,” said the Cagayan de Oro lawmaker.

He added the contract should be studied by the committee, pointing to reported ambiguous provisions in the contract which indicated that Nanjing had the right to pull out its materials and equipment should the project be aborted or cancelled prior to completion.

“(It is) necessary so we can fine tune and strengthen the government procurement reform law,” he said, citing Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, which states that “all procurement shall be done through competitive bidding” and the law “shall apply to the procurement of infrastructure projects, goods and consulting services, regardless of source of funds, whether local or foreign, by all branches and instrumentalities of government, its departments, offices and agencies, including government-owned and/or controlled corporations and local government units.”