“The complainants said the transactions disregarded procurement laws, transparency standards, and fiscal responsibility”
Several taxpayers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have asked the Office of the President, Office of the Ombudsman in Mindanao, and the Office of the Speaker, Bangsamoro Transitory Authority, to investigate the alleged anomalous P680-million rice procurement transactions made by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government in 2024 which may constitute plunder.
A copy of the complaint was also sent to the Senate and the Commission on Audit.
The complainants, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the transactions disregarded procurement laws, transparency standards, and fiscal responsibility.
They claimed all rice procurement contracts were consistently awarded to a single supplier, the JB Pharma & Trade Center, a pharmaceutical distributor, which raised concerns about its capacity to supply rice and other food commodities.
The complainants said the awards were made despite the presence of other bidders who were previously determined to be the Lowest Calculated and Responsive Bidders.
In one specific transaction, the government is alleged to have lost P15 million because the contract was awarded to JB Pharma instead of the lowest bidder who is a responsible and legitimate agricultural products supplier.
The complainants said the repeated disqualification of qualified bidders without clear justification and the consistent awarding of contracts to an entity not primarily engaged in the supply of agricultural goods, suggest improper procurement practices.
They said the awards were purchased at a significantly inflated price of over P60 per kilo when the prevailing market price is P45 per kilo, constituting excessive expenditures as defined by a Commission on Audit circular.
In one instance, they said MILG Minister Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba made it appear that an emergency purchase of rice and hygiene kits was made on July 24, 2024, using the 2023 MILG-READI Fund worth P100.325 million, despite no declaration of a state of calamity.
The complaint-affidavit alleged the transaction was facilitated by the Minister’s husband, Salhiwardi Alba, who contracted the JB Pharma and Trade Center.
According to the complainants, no delivery was made for this budget, and no goods distribution occurred.
The liquidation was made using the same few goods pictured from different angles to justify the payment.
The misuse of the emergency procurement mode under Republic Act 9184, well after the lapse of the legally declared period of calamity, further compounds the irregularities of these transactions.
The transactions have been intentionally structured to circumvent procurement rules, violating a contract splitting prohibition.
The complaint-affidavit also alleged that the Ministry has consistently practiced what is called “splitting” by intentionally dividing a single transaction into several procurements and reducing the threshold amount to less than a million to circumvent the mandatory bidding.
The complainants claimed that JB Pharma and Trade Center does not exist at its known address and was contracted as a dummy company to deal with MILG Biddings and Awards.
Hence, JB Pharma and Trade Center should be summoned and subjected to investigation, if indeed it transacted with the MILG and that the 2024 transactions are reflected in their Annual Financial Statement and Filed ITR for 2024.
The complainants requested for a thorough investigation of the case without prejudice to the filing of a case for violation of Section 3(e) of RA 3019 for conducting emergency purchase with the Declaration of State of Calamity and for plunder as the two cases involved an amount of more than P50 million.
The complainants ended their affidavit with the fervent hope the “high ideals of the principle of Moral Governance” should prevail over “corruption or any appearance of corruption” that their complaint-affidavit would be given due attention and immediate action by the concerned authorities.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
