STATE AUDITORS said the Court of Appeals (CA) failed to properly monitor the procurement of supplies for its offices worth P59.228 million.
In its 2020 audit report, the Commission on Audit (CoA) said the CA did not prepare and submit procurement monitoring reports (PMR) and agency procurement compliance and performance indicator (APCPI) for 12 completed contracts.
The contracts involve security services, photocopying machines, and cybersecurity software, among others.
CoA cited that the failure to prepare the procurement reports was due to “unawareness” of the requirement and lack of capacity to prepare the documents, based on inquiry with the head secretariat of the CA’s bids and awards committee (BAC).
The commission also said that the list of complete procurements projects submitted as an alternative to the reports “does not support formal tracking and monitoring” and did not provide information on the progress of ongoing projects by the court.
“While the audit team acknowledges the predicament of the BAC Secretariat, we believe that accomplishing and submitting the PMR and APCPI provide the efficient tracing of specific procurements… as well as the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the Court’s procurement system,” auditors reported.
CoA has recommended for the CA to provide proper support to the BAC secretariat and possibly share the task of preparing procurement reports with the court’s Management Audit Division.
They also said that the BAC Secretariat should provide a more efficient and effective procurement reporting system that can function even during calamities or emergencies along with mandatory submissions of the PMR, APCPI, and the annual procurement plan.
Lawmakers from both chambers of Congress have sought to effectively transfer full responsibility of the procurement process to concerned government agencies with bills seeking to abolish the Budget department’s Procurement Service and the Philippine International Trading Corp. — Russell Louis C. Ku