The President of the Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology (DOSCST) has been found guilty of Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service and ordered suspended for six months without pay. The Office of the Ombudsman found President Jonathan Bayogan, together with Airma Ladera (Chairman, Bids and Awards Committee), Vivian Labasano (OIC-Director for Administrative Services) and Erlinda Patosa (BAC member) administratively liable for failing to comply with the Government Procurement Reform Act (Republic Act No. 9184) for a project undertaken in 2006.
The OMB-Mindanao Field Investigation Unit found that in March 2006, the DOSCST procured supplies and equipment for its Funda Laboratory without public bidding and sans any Approved Budget for the Contract. Procurement documents showed that respondents obtained quotations from three suppliers and opened their bids. However, after the opening of quotations, respondents allowed another bidder, Multilab, to submit its offer and eventually awarded the project to the latter thru the alternative method of Shopping.
A perusal of the quotations showed that the offers ranged from P225,000.00 to P300,000.00—budgets which are beyond the procurement thresholds prevailing at that time. Applicable procurement regulations in 2006 require that for projects with ABCs exceeding P250,000.00, a procuring entity must conduct competitive bidding.
“Without conducting public bidding, the government was denied of other reasonable prices and quality goods from other suppliers. In fact, the defibrillator supplied by Multilab was defective,” stated the Decision.
The Office of the Ombudsman directed the Regional Director XI of the Commission on Higher Education to implement the suspension order.###