Ombudsman files graft raps vs ex-TESDA chief

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman filed graft charges against former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Augusto Syjuco Jr. before the Sandiganbayan yesterday for his alleged involvement in various procurement anomalies in 2007.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales also indicted 10 other officers of the agency – former deputy director general Rogelio Peyuan; directors Antonio del Rosario, Ernesto Beltran and Teodoro Sanico; regional director Buen Mondejar; lawyer Marjorie Docdocil; chief administrative officer Juanito Belda; administrative officer Maximiano Montemayor; senior administrative assistant Francisco Fang; and private respondent Vicente Roxas as president and chairman of the firm V.G. Roxas Co. Inc.

The case against Syjuco, incumbent Iloilo City congressman, and the others stemmed from alleged irregularities in Ladderized Education Program of TESDA (LEPTES) and the Nordic Development Fund-TESDA (NDFTES) projects.

Morales cited a March 12, 2009 report of the Commission on Audit (COA) which discovered that the training equipment and testing tools delivered by V.G. Roxas Co. under the LEPTES and NDFTES projects were of low quality and overpriced by more than P60.9 million, which accounts for at least 20.18 percent of the total procurement amount of P302.1 million.

Among the overpriced items cited by the report are a P149 incubator jar priced at P15,375; a P900 hatching bucket priced at P43,750; and a P120 dough cutter priced at P48,507.46.

After inspecting the various supplies under the projects, the COA said that P70 million out of the P133 million worth of training equipment and testing tools remained unused – most gathered dust, while some were destroyed by rodents.

Morales said the TESDA bids and awards committee – composed of Sanico, Docdocil, Beltran and Mondejar – still proceeded with the bidding of supplies for the projects despite “the vague technical specifications of the various training and testing tools and equipment.”