Ombudsman to probe P.3-M phone deal of Cebu police

CEBU CITY — A Commission on Audit (COA) official said the lack of a bidding in the purchase of cellphones by the provincial police makes the transaction illegal, and the Office of the Ombudsman is now preparing to look into the matter.

The state auditor, who asked not to be named, said the deal is disadvantageous to the government, and Ombudsman director Virginia Palanca Santiago said she will ask Deputy Ombudsman Primo Miro to initiate an inquiry.

Suspicions about the deal cropped up when it was learned that the phones were bought at a price much higher than that offered by a leading dealer in Cebu.

The suspicions were bolstered when it was subsequently learned that the phones, 90 Mitsubishi Triums, were bought from a dealer in Ormoc City despite the fact that Cebu is saturated with cellphone dealers.

Virgilio Guadalquever, comptroller of the provincial police, tried to dismiss the suspicions by saying that he conducted a canvass prior to making the purchase.

But the state audit official said a personal canvass is only allowed if this is made directly with manufacturers.

Guadalquever presented a document showing he had made a canvass of prices offered by only three cellphone dealers, one from Ormoc and two from Cebu.

The Ormoc dealer, AC Marketing, which eventually clinched the deal, offered P3.333.33 for each of the 90 Mitsubishi Triums it sold to the provincial police.

The two Cebu dealers canvassed, Phonepal on Osmeña Boulevard and Cellverfont on Mango Avenue, both offered the same price of P3,390 for a Mitsubishi Trium.

But a check by The Freeman with a leading cellphone dealer in Cebu which was not included in the canvass showed the P3,333.33 price offered by AC Marketing of Ormoc for each Mitsubishi Trium is actually P843 higher than the price quoted by the leading Cebu cellphone dealer.

A price quotation obtained by The Freeman from Audionet Trading showed it offered only P2,490 per unit of exactly the same cellphones which the Cebu police had bought.

And the price quoted by Audionet already included a SIM pack and a P100 load.

Other leading cellular phone dealers in Cebu also offered similar prices.

The highest price for the same brand and model even among sidewalk dealers in Cebu is only P2,990. This means that the government may have lost P75,870 in the P300,000 deal.

Aside from the questionable transaction, some of the cellphones bought may also be defective.

This possibility arose when Toledo City police chief Augustin Lloveras, one of those provided with the new cellphones, returned his unit the other day, claiming it did not work.

Moreover, the phones may not have reached all the intended beneficiaries.

The cellphones were meant to be distributed to city and municipal police stations to boost their communication capabilities but it was learned that only 53 of the 90 phones reached police stations.

The rest were distributed to what provincial police chief Jose Antonio Salvacion described as "specialized units."

The provincial government funded the purchase of the cellphones.

Incidentally, AC Marketing is also a supplier for the cooperative managed by the wife of Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia. — Freeman News Service