Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 4) — ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro intends to investigate the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) procurement practices during the upcoming budget deliberations after it was flagged for its immediate establishment of satellite offices worth over ₱668,000.
“We are deeply concerned about the OVP’s alleged shortcuts in procurement processes,” Castro said on Tuesday. “This is a matter that should not be taken lightly, especially considering that millions, even billions, of taxpayer’s money are involved.“We will not let this pass without proper investigation and accountability. It is our duty to ensure that public funds are spent in a transparent and accountable manner,” she added as the congresswoman noted that the OVP has millions of confidential and intelligence funds that also require scrutiny.In a recent report, the Commission on Audit (COA) noted the OVP failed to fully comply with procurement rules and processes when it purchased property worth ₱668,197.20 for the satellite offices (SOs) in July 2022, after Vice President Sara Duterte assumed her post.
READ: COA flags OVP over immediate establishment of satellite offices
“The immediate establishment of SOs without enough equipment to operate led to management’s decision to resort in immediate purchase of PPE (plant, property, and equipment) and semi-expendable property using the cash of its officers, which the OVP subsequently paid through reimbursement,” the COA said.
Castro also called on relevant government agencies to conduct a thorough review on the procurement processes of the OVP as well as other offices Duterte currently heads such as the Department of Education and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
OVP tells Castro to save speculations
In a statement, the OVP maintained that the ₱668,197.20 cost of the SOs equipment has already been validated and passed the audit of COA.The office told ACT Teachers Partylist to put a stop to its “insinuation” that the procurement is “mired in corruption.”“The COA findings and recommendations should be enough to disappoint ACT Teachers Partylist, and if only France Castro read the COA papers, it would have saved them the time and the energy to conjure wild speculations about OVP spending,” the OVP said.
