CoA clears ERC over bidding

by Alena Mae S. Flores – February 02, 2017 at 12:01 am

from Manila Standard Today

THE Commission on Audit has cleared the Energy Regulatory Commission over the bidding for its audio-visual project that was raised by a former official in his suicide note because it “was not consummated.”

“There were no further actions taken by the ERC after the two failed biddings. As such, no further action could be undertaken because the transaction relating to the AVP was not consummated,” the commission says in an evaluation report.

The report was signed Vivencio Quiambao Jr., CoA state auditor IV and Audit Team Leader and Flovita Felipe, supervising auditor of the DoE Audit Group.

ERC chairman Jose Vicente Salazar wrote CoA in November last year seeking a thorough investigation of the issues raised by the late ERC director Jose Francisco Villa from his suicide note.

Before his suicide, Villa led the ERC Bids and Awards Committee or BAC which supervised the procurement of office supplies and professional services.

Villa claimed in his note that his greatest fear in the bids and awards committee was the audio-visual project or AVP of Luis Morelos whom Salazar chose through a “rigged selection system.”

Villa claimed that he had been under pressure to approve a contract from Morelos for the production of the AVP. Morelos had previously acted as an ERC consultant.

But the CoA report did not mention any rigging in the selection process for the supplier for the P300,000 AVP project.

CoA also noted that a memorandum of agreement for the services of Morelos as ERC consultant was terminated by the ERC in January 2016, and only a few weeks after it was signed.

It added that the amount set aside to cover Morelos’ fees was not paid out and “will be reverted [to the ERC] as the transaction did not materialize.”

CoA said the AVP bidding failed twice, first because no prospective bidders submitted their quotation. The second posting was also a failure because “it was alleged that the preparation of the second Terms of Reference failed to indicate the passing rate which was a vital information to determine the most responsive quotation.”

The CoA report observed, however, that there was no document submitted indicating the funding source for the project.