Raps eyed vs Teo, Montano over P80-M project

MANILA, Philippines — Former tourism secretary Wanda Teo and former Tourism Promotions Board chief operating officer (COO) Cesar Montano might face criminal charges after the TPB found them responsible for the P80.64-million Buhay Carinderia project, which the Commission on Audit (COA) noted to be irregular and disadvantageous to the government.

In its annual audit report on TPB for 2018, the COA said the Board must “identify the persons liable to this onerous contract and institute appropriate legal action against them.”

In a management comment incorporated in the audit report, the TPB admitted that the payments for the controversial project totaling P80,640,173 were released to marketing agency Marylindbert International Inc. (MII) with “seemingly undue haste” upon the directives of Montano and Teo.

“The payments to MII were made with seemingly undue haste. The TPB finance department was constrained to process disbursements despite the non-submission of the necessary documents for the release of funds. These were done upon the directives of former COO and former Secretary of DOT as explained by the officer-in-charge of finance department,” the TPB said.

Montano resigned as TPB chief in May last year at the height of the Buhay Carinderia controversy.

Buhay Carinderia is a tourism project aimed to promote the country’s street food and local eateries.

It was not discussed in the COA’s 2017 annual audit report but Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, who succeeded Teo in May last year, ordered the temporary suspension of the project and requested COA for a special audit investigation.

The TPB is the promotions and marketing arm of the Department of Tourism.

In its 2018 audit report, uploaded on its website Thursday, the COA said the disbursement of funds for Buhay Carinderia was irregular and that the contract entered into by TPB with MII was disadvantageous to the government.

For one, the audit body said the fund for the project was drawn from the TPB’s 2017 budget even when Buhay Carinderia was not included in the agency’s Annual Procurement Plan (APP) and Project Procurement Management Plan (PPMP) for the year.

COA said Buhay Carinderia was implemented in early 2018 when APP and PPMP for that year also bore no inclusion of such project.

The audit body cited Sections 7.1 and 7.2 of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, which states that all government procurement shall be within the approved budget of the procuring entity.

COA added that the TPB, during Montano’s term, still pushed through with the project even if the agency in fact had a budget overdraft or shortage of P256.314 million in 2017.

COA pointed out that aside from the required budget appropriation, Section 85 of Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Auditing Code also states that “no contract involving expenditure of public funds shall be entered into” unless the concerned government agency has an “unexpended balance sufficient to cover the proposed expenditure.”

Worse, COA said the TBP paid the entire contract cost of P80.64 million to MII without deducting the five percent final value-added tax (VAT), equivalent to P3.6 million, in violation of Section 114 of the National Internal Revenue Code that “deprived the national government of additional revenue.”

The COA said as of April 17, 2018, full payment was released to MII despite the company’s failure to submit liquidation/fund utilization report and other supporting documents such as official receipts, invoices and other proof of expenses.

The COA faulted the TPB as the contract for the project only requires the MII to submit a summary report on its expenses.

“Only the summary of expenses and disbursements was required in the (memorandum of agreement) to be submitted to TPB at the end of the project... without mention of other necessary supporting documents to establish existence/completion of the project,” the COA said.