Noodle whistle-blower claims more irregularities

MANILA, Philippines - The whistleblower of the alleged P750-million noodle scam at the Department of Education (DepEd) has questioned what he called Education Secretary Jesli Lapus’ apparent reluctance to cancel the award of the P427-million contract for “fortified noodles with fresh eggs and malunggay” and call for a re-bidding.

Dennis Quido, sales manager of Kolonwell Trading, had exposed the award of all noodle procurement contracts of DepEd for five consecutive years to a lone bidder, identified as Jeverps Manufacturing Corp.

Quido said Lapus should have cancelled the award instead of ordering a mere review of the bidding procedures conducted by the DepEd’s Bids and Awards Committee.

He said the review seemed unnecessary in view of the recent Senate education committee hearings chaired by Sen. Manuel Roxas II which found that there was an overprice in the purchase of the noodles.

“Secretary Lapus should explain why he has not ordered the cancellation of the award of the contract and why he is not pushing for a re-bidding,” Quido told The STAR in a phone interview.

He said the procurement law provided that a government agency has the power to cancel the award of a contract especially if it is found to be attended with irregularities.

“It is really very mysterious why Secretary Lapus is defending the contract at the point of even attacking us by questioning our reputation and our motives. He should even thank us that we exposed an overprice in the noodles,” he said.

Quido had earlier aired concern over a possible whitewash in the DepEd in-house probe of the alleged noodle scam ordered by Lapus, which has reportedly led Sen. Roxas to stop the Senate probe on the controversy.

Quido called on Roxas to continue the Senate’s Committee on Education probe on the P750-million instant noodles contracts.

Jeverps had been supplying the noodles for the agency’s school-feeding program for the past several years.

In the past two hearings, the Senate education committee found that P285 million was spent in 2007, another P61 million for a repeat order last year, and P427 million was spent for the same project this year.

There were six deals, including a repeat order, amounting to roughly P750 million, all going to one bidder, according to Roxas.