PH Ports Authority defends COA-flagged projects

MANILA — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) on Tuesday maintained that its projects recently flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) were aboveboard.

The three projects PPA was asked to explain included the purchase of service vehicles worth P16.773 million that had no government markings.

The state auditor noted that these “were continuously included as reimbursable items,” which resulted in “unnecessary increased project cost.”

The agency received three reports from COA in June and July.

PPA submitted a cost-benefit analysis to COA explaining that purchasing a vehicle worth P1.084 million each was more economical than renting a service vehicle that would cost the government over P4 million in seven years.

“Malalayong lugar ang pinupuntahan ng field personnel natin. Maglalakad po eh yung sasakyan eh rerentahan mas mahal po kasi kung ang sasakyan ay rerentahan two years three years, alam naman natin na kapag natapos ang term mas mahirap kapag wala ka man lang ipapakita kung saan napunta yung pera," PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said.

(Our field personnel visit far-flung areas. They would need to walk, and renting a vehicle is more expensive. We know that when the terms ends, it's difficult to have nothing to show for where the money went.)

Santiago also defended the agency's purchase of P18 million worth of office equipment, furniture, computers, computer software, and “high-end models of brands of electronic gadgets.”

COA also flagged 19 contracts awarded last year, which included “high-end model/brand of cellular phones and tablets.”

The port authority included these as reimbursable items in dredging and infrastructure projects.

Project contractors would then procure these items and turn them over to the PPA after the completion of the project.

Santiago explained that the computers were used for fieldwork.

However, he admitted that some of the mobile phones were used personally by some of their personnel.

Santiago told the press that he made those personnel pay for the cellphones with their salary.

“It came to our attention na may communications equipment that were charged to the project but were deployed sa tao na hindi field engineer. We disallowed that internally as PPA and made the people pay for it from their salaries. Yun pong mga computer dedicated sa project kasama sa project cost yan,” Santiago said.

(There were communications equipment that were charged to the project but were deployed to personnel who were not field engineers. We disallowed that internally... Computers dedicated to the project were included in the project cost.)

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The PPA was also asked to explain the untitled 3.925 million square meters of land and reclaimed land recorded in its books and valued at P73.548 billion.

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The auditors recommended that the PPA expedite the submission of all the necessary documentation to process the titles of the lands.

The PPA management told the audit team that while the land dispute was not their sole discretion, they were committed to resolving the issues.

The PPA explained that they had formed a “titling” committee to handle the land issues.

Santiago also said that the agency was closely coordinating with other government offices.

“Yang land title issue has been there since PPA started in 1974. Marami pong projects ang PPA and yun pong lupa na natayuan ng mga pantalan almost 5 decades na hindi natituluhan. During our time po in 2017, we already constituted a titling committee. To be fair, it should also be disclosed long, long before. It was only during our admin that we actually made concrete steps flagging untitled land," Santiago said.

(The land issue has been there since PPA started in 1974. The PPA had many projects and the lands where the ports were built for almost 5 decades had no titles.)

“PPA has already taken initiatives to address it. Malamang the reason may ganito si COA is hinihintay rin ni COA yung titles," Santiago added.

The PPA said it welcomes the COA reports as a heads up of problems that could arise in the future.

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“Whenever COA comes up with that observation, dapat siguro hindi tayo allergic doon sa observation ng COA. Because COA’s observation basically gives you a heads up on what potential problems there are so you can correct it. Hindi sya blame game, hindi ka sinisisi ni COA... That is how we appreciate and perceive yung mga COA findings sa amin. We do not take it personally as an attack to the agency o ano," Santiago said.

(We should not be allergic to the observations of COA. This is not a blame game.)

The PPA is under the Department of Transportation.

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