PLDT revamps management amid P48-B budget overrun

MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. will reorganize its management structure after an internal probe showed a P48-billion budget overrun of its network and infrastructure projects in the last four years.

“PLDT is undertaking a management reorganization process and has initiated improvements on its processes and systems to address weaknesses that allowed such budget overruns to occur,” PLDT said in a statement Friday.

“A separate announcement will be made once the reorganization is implemented,” it added.

Emmanuel C. Lorenzana, the former head of flagship wireless unit Smart Communications, was  recently appointed as chief transformation and customer officer. 

The Pangilinan-led company also appointed Danny Yu as group controller and Joseph Gendrano as chief technology officer.

The decision came following weeks of allegations of an internal investigation over supposed financial anomalies. 

In a regulatory filing on Friday, PLDT said that its multiyear capex projects, including an LTE and 5G rollout, fiber rollout, submarine cable expansions, towers upgrades, and other projects, have reached P379 billion from 2019 to 2022.

Out of P379 billion, P48 billion was considered a budget overrun, which was 12.7% of the total capex spend over the period.

“The investigation has, so far, not uncovered any fraudulent transactions, procurement anomalies, or loss of assets arising from the capex spend,” PLDT said.

Internet forensics mandated by the board and audit committee are currently being conducted. The company also said they are discussing with principal vendors to reconcile accounts and reduce the cost overruns.