The PITC led by Dave Almarinez handled billions of pesos intended for purchases by government agencies, and was remiss in its work, as the COA pointed out. Disgraced and shamed by his incompetence, Almarinez resigns.
WITH pressure mounting, there is nothing more for Dave Almarinez, president and CEO of Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to do but to resign.
Almarinez's resignation from the purchasing agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and thus the whole government, took effect on Sept. 15, 2021, two days after he filed it -- a testimony to the fact that his quitting cannot wait.
Based on Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez's department order dated Sept. 13, 2021, Almarinez was replaced by Ms. Christabelle Ebriega as the officer-in-charge of the agency.
"Why the rush" could be explained by recent developments in the government's ongoing cleansing of its ranks, particularly on the matter of graft and corruption.For sure, Ms. Ebriega will find it a daunting task to clear up the mess that Almarinez left in the PITC.
Of late, the Commission on Audit (COA) have discovered several "deficiencies" and flaws in the management of funds and purchasing operations of the PITC under Almarinez.
It is Dave's bad luck that these deficiencies and indelicacies came to the fore while the Senate, particularly its Blue Ribbon Committee, is investigating similar anomalies in the purchase of face masks, face shields and personal protective equipment by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) from some P42-billion funds of the Department of Health.
Estafa, malversation complaints
Atty. Larry Gadon has filed criminal charges for swindling (estafa) and malversation of public funds before the Office of the Ombudsman against Almarinez.
He used the COA report of May 2, 2019 which revealed that the PITC entered into several memorandum of agreements (MOA) with at least 17 government agencies for the procurement of goods and services, including infrastructure projects.
Questionable transactions
The PITC has several questionable transactions, itemized below for the benefit of readers who wanted just a summary or a quick glance of how the agency is taking liberties with the people's money.
1. In its 2020 Annual Audit Report for the Philippine Air Force (PAF), the COA said that the PITC deprived the Air Force of “immediate use” of much-needed supplies and equipment despite paying the state-owned firm over P736.14 million in the past two to three years.
2. In the same report, this time for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the COA disclosed that the PITC was unable to deliver “state-of-the-art” Clearance Processing System and other equipment despite the fact that the NBI has advanced P103.70 million to the procurement agency.
3. Based on the 2019 annual audit report for the Philippine National Police, it was noted that the PITC has failed to deliver firearms, police vehicles and other equipment worth P1.046 billion three years after the PNP transferred payment for its orders. Out of the P1.347 billion sent by PNP to the PITC, the latter was only able to deliver P311 million worth of ordered equipment.
4. The PITC promised -- and failed -- to handle the design and construction of a hospital for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases despite receiving more than P126 million for the project from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) two years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government's response to the pandemic would have been improved had this hospital was built.
5. Urgently needing agricultural machinery for sugar farmers, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) transferred some P206 million of its funds to the PITC to buy such machines. This purchase that was agreed upon by the two agencies did not materialize, and suffered various delays.
A persistent SRA and a Senate investigation led to an admission by Almarinez that the “PITC had invested monies held by it in trust for clients’ source agencies and national government agencies in money market placements.”
Some P11.02 billion in funds transferred from 2014 to 2020 by various source agencies “remained unutilized as of Dec. 31, 2020,” COA said in the 2020 Annual Audit Report.
“These funds were not returned to the concerned SAs or to the Bureau of Treasury, but were earmarked for procurements in CY 2021 and onwards, contrary to the pertinent provision os COA Circular No. 94-013 dated Dec. 13, 1994 and the General provisions of the prior year’s General Appropriations Act,” the state audit agency said.
Good intention
The PITC was created to fill the need of the government to have an “organized body that can take advantage of economies of scale in bulk purchases, wide scale shipping and marketing, centralized financing assistance and other export promotion services.”
But PITC's conduct of business during the past years leaves much to be desired, resulting in delays in service delivery and accumulation of billions of pesos in unused funds.
Thus, calls from senators, consumer advocates and netizens for the resignation of Almarinez became louder and louder, and there is nothing left for him but to heed the call. (With a report from Diego Cagahastian)