Sen. Grace Poe (File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Did the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) cancel its deal with the supplier of the national ID cards after realizing that subcontracting is not allowed in its contract with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)?
Senator Grace Poe, head of the Senate finance committee, thinks so.
This, after learning from officials of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) that subcontracting is prohibited under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the PSA and the BSP.
Under the MOA, PSA National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis Mapa said they would pay the BSP to print the national ID cards.
But Mapa said they were surprised to learn later that the printing was subcontracted to AllCard Inc. (ACI), a service provider of the BSP,
“As mentioned, we were surprised na All Cards ang kumuha. Nalaman na namin nung nagkakaroon ng operation,” he told the Senate subcommittee on finance on Wednesday.
(As mentioned, we were surprised that All Cards was the one who took it. We found out about it when the operation was underway.)
“Are we in a violation of an agreement or the law because if there was an agreement between you and BSP, is there a particular provision that says BSP will print?” Poe then asked.
Mapa pointed out that it was clearly stated in the MOA that subcontracting is not allowed.
“So papano ngayon yan (So what happens now)? They violated,” Poe said.
“This is actually a grave concern because if they blatantly violated memorandum of agreement, that’s something that can cancel out the entire agreement and I mean BSP might be liable for something here,” she added.
The senator then asked the COA to explain how it happened.
COA auditor Anicleto Boleche Jr. echoed Mapa’s explanation that subcontracting is prohibit under a Bids and Awards Committee resolution, which was attached to the MOA.
“And nung nalaman nga namin na si AllCard yung nakuha nya, we raised this issue with the PSA,” Boleche said.
(And when we found out that it was AllCard who took it, we raised this issue with the PSA.)
Poe later asked the COA if the BSP should be asked to return the PSA’s payment for violating the MOA. But Boleche said they have yet to study this matter.
According to Mapa, the PSA had so fair paid P1.4 billion to the BSP for the printing of 90 percent of the 55 million national ID cards.
“So I think we have to investigate further ano ba itong AllCard na ito,” Poe said.
“I think the reason why this is terminated now is maybe the Board of the BSP realized: Teka muna baka they are in violations of something because the memorandum of agreement is pretty clear. Hindi nila pwedeng i-subcontract yan,” she added.
In its termination notice dated August 15, the BSP’s Monetary Board cited various reasons for ending its contract with the supplier.
Among them was the supplier’s supposed “failure to deliver any or all of the goods specified in the contract, amounting to more than 10 percent of the contract price.”