8 NPO bidding execs dismissed

MANILA, Philippines - Eight officials of the National Printing Office (NPO) who make up the agency’s bids and awards committee (BAC) were ordered dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman over an irregular bidding to subcontract printing deals of other government agencies in September 2008.

Ombudsman graft investigation and prosecution officer Myla Teona Teologio issued last week a dismissal order for Miguel Arcadio, chairman of the NPO’s BAC, and committee members Eddie Vista, Sol Tamayo, Florencia Reyes, Federico Ramos, Elsa Calma, Ma. Paz Ramos, and Ernesto Plarisan who were found guilty of dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Teologio issued the order after investigating the complaint filed by Guillermo Sylianteng Jr., general manager of Ready Forms Inc. in Marikina City, who exposed numerous irregularities in the public biddings conducted by the NPO to subcontract the printing contracts of government agencies.

“After a careful scrutiny of the allegations and the evidence adduced by the complainant, this office finds the complaint imbued with merit,” Teologio said.

Sylianteng’s complaint cited the bidding supposedly conducted by the NPO BAC on Sept. 5, 2008, which he said was highly unlikely since Arcadio and the seven other BAC members were only appointed to the committee on Sept. 2, 2008.

The holding of the bidding by the BAC a mere three days after their appointment as BAC members, raised the fact that they failed to give a 15-day period to publish an invitation to bid and other requirements under the Government Procurement Act.

Sylianteng also filed separate graft and plunder charges before the Ombudsman against the NPO BAC members, as well as former NPO director Enrique Agana based on other irregular biddings, aside from the bidding conducted in September 2008.

Sylianteng filed plunder charges against several NPO executives who allegedly supervised three supposedly anomalous public biddings of an estimated P141 million worth of contracts for the printing of official accountable forms of different national government agencies and local government units (LGUs) in January and February 2008.

Agana and the eight newly dismissed NPO BAC officials were charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman and dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the civil service.

Also charged were Evelyn Perlado, chief of the agency’s Production, Planning and Control Division; and NPO legal consultant lawyer Phio Viovicente.

In his plunder complaint filed before the Ombudsman on Feb. 13, 2008, Sylianteng accused the NPO executives of presiding over three “sham and fixed biddings” on Jan. 13 and 19, and Feb. 6 to award the multimillion-peso printing contracts to produce the standard and official accountable forms of different national government agencies and LGUs.

In his 15-page complaint, Sylianteng said that in the Jan. 13 and 19 bidding during which Agana was still the NPO acting director, there was no public notice made of the bidding to subcontract printing contracts given them by more than 30 agencies.

As a result of the secret biddings, only the “pre-selected and invited” private printers were able to participate and bag the printing contracts.

Among the agencies that gave the NPO their printing contracts were the Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Ports Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Manila International Airport Authority, and Commission on Filipinos Overseas.