Graft raps filed vs Agriculture chief, 13 others over P456-M deal

By Jason Faustino and Charlie V. Manalo

11/19/2009

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and 13 officials of government-run National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) were charged with graft before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the procurement of alleged overpriced ice-making machines worth P456 million.

Nabcor is buying 98 machines with liquid quick freeze capability as part of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) program to build post-harvest facilities.

Businessman Allan Ragasa, a representative of the Sunvar company, in his petition, also called on Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to issue a preventive suspension order against Yap and the officials of Nabcor.

Included in the charge sheet were Nabcor president Alan Javella; Nabcor Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairman Romulo Arevalo; Dennis Lozada, Winston Azucena, Melody de Guzman, and Encarnita-Cristina Munsod of the Integrated Refrigerated Systems and Services (IRSS); and their representatives Alexander

Leung, chairman; Lawrence Tan Son, manager; Yao Ching Hsun, director; Stephen Vehemente, corporate secretary; Marites Soriano, assistant corporate secretary; and Jason Paz, treasurer.

Ragasa said Yap and the other respondents were charged with graft “due to violation of bidding rules, operated to exclude all interested bidders, except one, and ensured that the contract will be awarded to the ineligible but favored lone bidder, IRSS and its partner.”

In his 12-page supplemental complaint-affidavit, Ragasa stressed that BAC purposely eliminated all the bidders except IRSS after they failed to submit a toxicology report that was made a requirement a week before the bidding on Aug. 26

It was alleged in the complaint that is impossible for participating bidders to submit the test report required by Nabcor as it will take two weeks for them to get the results, which was way beyond the deadline.

He said only IRSS, whom he branded as the “favored bidder” was able to comply with this requirement as it already had a toxicology report under their old company name Triple & Agro Trading Inc.

Ragasa added the respondents failed to take into account that IRSS was not even into manufacture and trading of ice-making equipment and machines, as what should be the premise for the bidders in this kind of project, but was instead formerly a business engaged in trading.

“What is even more alarming and certainly worth the exposé is the fact that a very substantial amount is involved in this project without the guarantee that taxpayer’s money will really redound to the benefit of the ultimate beneficiaries-local fishermen,” he stressed.

Sunvar was supposedly interested in supplying equipment for this project but was not among IRSS and three other companies that were represented during the public bidding held by Nabcor’s BAC last Sept. 2.

The invitation was published on July 29, 2009 and the submission and opening of bids was scheduled for Aug. 26, 2009. The proposed procurement had an approved budget for the contract of P455.7 million.

But Nabcor officials maintained that the contract is “aboveboard and that public bidding was done in keeping with all processes required under the law.”

Nabcor spokesman Kathyrin Pioquinto, in a statement, questioned the move of the complainants to include Yap as one of the respondents in the complaint, saying this was a mere “publicity stunt” because “the (Agriculture) secretary had nothing to do whatsoever with this project as he is not a member of the Nabcor Board.”

Pioquinto said the mere admission by Ragasa’s group that it had “no documentary evidence” implicating Yap “buttressed that the DA secretary had nothing to do whatsoever in the project.”

“These outrageous accusations hurled by these complainants are without basis, far from the truth, hearsay and perjurious,” she stressed.

She added it was wrong for the complainants in the case to compare the state-of-the-art multi-function machines provided by IRSS with the single-purpose, conventional ice-making equipment offered by other companies that, in the first place, declined to participate in the bidding process.

Besides, Pioquinto said, Sunvar, which was supposedly interested in supplying equipment for the project, was not among IRSS and three other companies that were represented during the public bidding.

It was only IRSS that submitted a formal bid, while representatives of three more companies — Kolonwell, JOAVI and Instrumech Philippines Inc. — attended the public bidding but backed off from submitting their sealed bids, she said.

In the interest of full transparency, Pioquinto said the BAC even bent backwards by allowing representatives of these three companies to participate during the bidding process even if they opted not to submit their bids at the start of the process.

PNA

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