DOLE accused of defrauding service provider, rushing implementation of program

MANILA, Philippines — The owner of the company contracted by the Department of Labor and Employment in one of its programs accused the agency officials of not paying the enterprise the agreed upon amount.  

In a lengthy Facebook post, Raymond Rodis, founder and CEO of ASPIRE Philippines, narrated how DOLE officials did not pay the company fully of what was stated in the contract.

“Government paid us LATE and LESS than what we were promised,” he wrote.

ASPIRE Philippines was chosen as a service provider of the department’s JobStart program, which seeks to give marginalized youth employment assistance, which includes life skills training, to make them more employable.

Rodis said they were shocked when they were told during their first meeting on Oct. 26, 2017 that the first phase of the training for 880 people would start in just 20 days. They initially rejected DOLE’s offer, saying it was not feasible to rush a huge project.

They finally took the contract on Nov. 7, 2017 after DOLE officials agreed to pay the company P6.16 million.

DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment official also assured that ASPIRE would be paid in full by December 2017, which was a “complete lie,” according to Rodis.

“We were taking an enormous risk because this huge contract would start in just nine days and that we were not going to be paid a single centavo until the training was done meaning we would have to borrow millions,” he said.

However, Rodis was told on March 20 that the company would not be paid the full amount of what was stated in the contract.

“On April 5, 2018, they told me the reason why they were paying us less was because the government was only able to bring in 594 trainees so they would only pay us P4.1 million,” he said.

Rodis added: “When I pointed our contract, [they] said we would be paid  P6.1 million and that it was government’s duty to get participants so it was their fault if they couldn’t get people, the DOLE lawyer had the audacity to say the contract is not what is binding on us.”

DOLE officials promised them that they would raise the amount they would pay ASPIRE should the company submit proof of actual costs.

“We submitted our documents in good faith yet government did not increase our amount by a single peso,” Rodis said.

ASPIRE submitted a notice of dispute addressed to DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello on April 6  and another demand letter on April 26.

DOLE replied a month after the company’s letter was sent but only with a one-page letter.

“Instead of answering our long list of arguments one by one, their one-page letter which took one month to write was 'we find the payment received to be in order' which is code for we aren’t going to pay you a single centavo more,” Rodis said.

He added: “They didn’t cite any legal or contractual ground to deny our claim. This is extremely unjust.”

In a text message to Philstar.com, Rodis said that they would likely take the matter to the Commission on Audit or a regional trial court.

Philstar.com tried to contact DOLE officials but no one has responded to the matter as of writing.

Incompetent DOLE officials

In the same post, Rodis accused DOLE of being “completely useless and sometimes even detrimental to the trainings.”

He said that DOLE officials did not give money to the trainees despite being promised P200 stipend per day because the officials were absent.

The ASPIRE CEO added that government officials were often absent during the actual training and only showed up during the graduation.

“How can we teach life skills to the youth with role models like this?” Rodis said.