Probers find overpricing, irregularities in CHED’s call center project

A team of investigators has found probable overpricing and serious irregularities in the P300-million call center laboratory project of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

In a report to the CHED’s four commissioners, acting Chairman Romulo Neri said CHED Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) should have declared a failure of bidding upon pre-qualification of only one eligible bidder for the Integrated Multi-Site Business Process Outsourcing Incubation Contact Centers (BPO-ICC) project.  

“The BAC could have declared a failed bidding,” read the investigation report. “There were grounds to do so. Given the magnitude of the project, it would have been prudent to do so.”

The investigators said the BAC could have considered the questions raised by its technical working group (TWG) on the eligibility documents submitted by the consortium of E-Services Global Solutions, Inc. (ESGS), Drishti Philippines, Inc. (DPI), Information Transmission Computer Control, Inc. (ITCC), and Hillmarc’s Construction Corporation, which bagged the project.

Two members of the TWG had considered ESGS and DPI as having failed the eligibility evaluation due to the two firms’ non-submission or lack of financial records or experience in undertaking government contracts, the report added.

The BAC disregarded questions that surfaced regarding the qualification of ITCC in the post-qualification evaluation, according to the investigators.

Documents obtained by The STAR showed that ITCC was found to be operating out of a residential home and had no “physical office” during a TWG background inspection conducted on the four firms making up the consortium.

The investigators also found out that the civil works costs of the construction of one single-floor building and the “retrofit” of five existing buildings to house six call center laboratories under the BPO-ICC project were “over-priced”.

Under the revised BPO-ICC plan, the project called for the ESGS-led consortium to put up six call centers in six state universities and colleges (SUC) with a new building to be constructed at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila, and the retrofitting of existing buildings in the five other SUCs: Technological University of the Philippines,  Laguna State Polytechnic University, Tarlac State University, Pangasinan State University, and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University.

According to the investigation, the P40,646 per square-meter cost of the new call center building to be put up in PUP to serve as the project’s “command center” was high considering that government agency estimates of similar single-floor building with a medium-quality finish was only P20,000 per square meter.

For the retrofitting of five existing buildings, it was learned that the government agency estimate for such civil works was only P10,000 per square meter.

It was learned that the ESGS consortium’s cost for the retrofit of the five existing buildings in TUP, LSPU, PSU, DMMSU, and TSU was P45,755 per square meter.

In an interview with The STAR after his presentation, Neri said that discussions were held between him and the four commissioners regarding the findings of the investigation into the BPO-ICC project.

Neri said a decision was made to forward the investigation to the Commission on Audit (COA) for a more thorough investigation.

Meanwhile, his order that no more payments be made to the ESGS consortium remains in effect, Neri said.