ARMM's 2nd 'most corrupt' agency saves P.5-M

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - What used to be the “second most corrupt” department in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao saved P500,000 out of a P2.4 million procurement transaction through a bidding process witnessed by the representatives of local sectors and the media.

The ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways earlier saved P136 million from its 2012 maintenance and operating expenses (MOE) and unspent infrastructure grants, as a result of the present administration’s stringent handling of the agency's treasury.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, Regional Pubic Works Secretary Emil Sadain and  Vicente Melvin Cabatbat of the D’ Limitless Vehicle Venture signed here Friday the contract for the procurement of P24.2 million worth of heavy equipment needed to hasten the implementation of infrastructure projects in the five provinces of the autonomous region.

The DPWH-ARMM was touted in the past as the autonomous region's second most corrupt entity, next to the regional education department, whose incumbent secretary, Jamar Kulayan, had also saved in the past 18 months P800 million from the agency’s MOE and unspent money intended for salaries of teachers and rank-and-file personnel.

The education department's P800 million savings were gradually accumulated as Hataman and Kulayan removed one after another the names of "ghost teachers" from its payrolls and stopped the releases of MOE to non-existent schools that proliferated during the past administrations.

The DPHW-ARMM’s latest heavy equipment supply contract had effectively cut by P500,000 the cost of the heavy equipment to be purchased, owing to the supplier's low quotations, compared to the prices indicated in the bid papers from the second and third lowest bidders.

Hataman and Sadain had also awarded a P2.5 million worth contract for the ARMM’s expanded road mapping project to another lowest bidder, the Woodfields Consultants, Inc.