With the way good ideas are emanating from the office of Senator Imee Marcos, one might think that she should be of better use for the nation to work in the Executive department rather than the Legislative.
Senator Imee Marcos was the one who rang the bell about various anomalies and irregularities going on in business and government. Among these are the attempts by some people in the Sugar Regulatory Administration to make "palusot" the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar -- which occurred during the dying days of the Duterte administration, and revived in the first few weeks of her brother's administration.
There is also the looming scarcity of white onions in the market, another ploy for the smugglers of agricultural products to make a move. And these things are happening while President Bongbong Marcos is himself the secretary of agriculture.
Senator Imee now has renewed the call to abolish the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) and the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), which were both created during the administration of her father Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Marcos had filed Senate Bills 1122 and 1123, which sought to abolish the PITC and PS-DBM for being behind numerous questionable and graft-ridden procurement contracts in the government.
“The series of procurement controversies that surfaced during the pandemic must end. In fact, the COA (Commission on Audit) has reported that they go back more than a decade,” Marcos said.
“We can step up emergency response with direct purchases of supplies, equipment and services. The government will also be able to avoid redundant allocations and save billions in next year’s national budget,” she added.
The COA flagged the PS-DBM last year over the allegedly overpriced procurement of P42 billion worth of COVID-19 supplies for the Department of Health.
Fresh from anomalous scandals about the purchase of Covid-19 related items such as face masks and face shields, the PS-DBM was embroiled anew in the questionable purchase of P2.4 billion worth of teachers’ laptops for the Department of Education.
The senator, along with other observers, also questioned the practice of the PS-DBM of reselling equipment and supplies to national government agencies that funded their procurement.
Turning her ire on the PITC, she claimed that this agency under the Department of Trade and Industry has become “a repository for unobligated funds of national government agencies” that were avoiding the return of unused portions of their budget to the national treasury, for use as year-end bonuses and other perks for its officials.
State auditors have flagged the PITC over at least P34 billion in idle funds from various agencies, including those for the procurement of fire trucks and military supplies.
Marcos is pushing for direct procurement by national government agencies ahead of an extended state of public health emergency and congressional hearings on the 2023 national budget.
“Both agencies were created during the term of my father in the ’70s. But they have not only outlived their usefulness; they have in fact become agencies of malfeasance and corruption,” the senator said.
For us, It Says Here that government procurement should conform to RA 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act.