Three publishing firms file complaint vs WB execs over P2.65-B grant

Three publishing firms have filed a complaint against three World Bank officials for awarding a P2.65-billion grant to a local publisher that they said "fraudulently cornered" contracts for the supply of textbooks and manuals to the Department of Education (DepEd).

Publishing firms Rex Bookstore Inc., Daehan Printing and Publishing Co., and Kolowel Trading alleged that bank officials Rekha Menon, Fadia Saadah, and Dominique Aumentado broke the bank’s own guidelines in awarding the grant to publishing giant Vibal Group of Bidders under a World Bank program, known as the Second Social Expenditure Project.

In their complaint filed at the World Bank’s Washington DC headquarters by their lawyer Harry Roque, the three publishing firms alleged that the Vibal Group "has fraudulently cornered a staggering 75.96 percent or P 2.65-billion pesos of the P3.5-billion budget for the SEMP2."

The grant was awarded in September despite attempts from the three publishing firms to block it.

The complaint came ahead of Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s exposé at the Senate on anomalies hounding the school textbook industry.

Lacson lamented that from 1999 to 2004, a single group of publishing companies that share common officers and stockholders has a virtual stranglehold on government contracts — over 75 percent — for the supply of schoolbooks.

The DepEd is asking for P2 billion for textbooks next year. "If the monopoly is not addressed, following the pattern, the Vibal Group stands to corner some P1.5 billion," Lacson said.

In their 20-page complaint filed with the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity based in Washington DC last Sept. 8, Rex Bookstore and the two other publishing houses seek to block the release of World Bank funding to Vibal.

The Vibal Group of Bidders is made up of Vibal Publishing House Inc., SD Publications Inc., LG&M Corp., JTW Inc. with Watana Phanit Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., and Alkem Co. as foreign partners.