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THE
Senate is poised to open a separate inquiry into the
multibillion-peso swine scam involving public funds
released as loans by the Quedan and Rural Credit
Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) to still-unidentified
beneficiaries.
Sen.
Panfilo Lacson has filed Senate Resolution 340, setting
in motion an investigation to ascertain the status of
the funds that went to the swine-dispersal program amid
claims that they ended up in the Arroyo administration’s
campaign kitty during the 2004 elections.
“It
seems that multibillion-[peso] anomalies are becoming
the hallmark of this administration to the detriment of
our people....Like the fertilizer scam, there are
allegations that the fund for the swine program were
diverted to the 2004 campaign fund of the administration
to ensure the reelection bid of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo,” Lacson said.
He added
that the latest fund mess brought back memories of a
P1.3-billion textbook scam, in which the bidding process
was said to have been tailored for a select group of
favored bidders with interlocking sets of officers.
Lacson
recalled that Quedancor launched the swine-dispersal
program in 2003 to assist farmers venturing into
hog-raising and that about P5 billion was allocated for
the project, P3 billion coming from the Land Bank of the
Philippines and P2 billion from Equitable-PCI Bank, with
government bonds as collateral.
But
Lacson noted that the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 2005
Annual Report found that P755.62 million in outstanding
loan balance and P663.77 million in receivables were
“doubtful.”
He said
the COA findings also cited that the procurement of
input supplies for Quedancor swine program amounting to
P1.67 billion during the year was not in accordance with
government procurement procedures, and that the high
cost of credit was not beneficial to farmer
beneficiaries.
“COA
also said some borrowers have denied borrowing from
Quedancor, and that the team leader or input suppliers
sought their signatures in exchange for amounts ranging
from P200 to P300,” he added.
“[The]
management also did not provide equal opportunity to
contractors, leading to a monopoly by a group of input
suppliers with interlocking sets of officers.”
According to Lacson, the COA report showed that a
certain chief executive officer (CEO) and managing
director of Metro Livestock Inc. is also a member of the
board of directors of the BIRKS Agri-Livestock Corp. and
a partner of the New Gold Agri-Vet Co.
“His
name and that of a director of BIRKS Corp. also appear
as former directors of the Silver Rock Resources Corp.”
“Yet as
of December 31, 2005, Quedancor procured some P1.67
billion worth of input supplies under the swine program.
Of this amount, BIRKS, SRC and Metro Livestock got the
biggest share of 35 percent, 29 percent and 23 percent,
respectively. Including the New Gold Rock, the four
Input Suppliers acquired 87.53 percent, or P1.46
billion, of the total procurements,” Lacson noted.
Tabulation from the regional office, he added, also
showed that procurement was concentrated from the three
input suppliers in the following regions: Silver Stock
in Ilocos and
Central Luzon; BIRKS in Western, Central and
Eastern
Visayas; and Metro Livestock in Southern Tagalog, Bicol
and NCR.
The same
records showed the major suppliers have only P1-million
authorized capital stock each and despite their minimal
paid-up capital, they were given huge amounts of
purchase orders, he said.
“No
track record was required from the input suppliers per
QSP accreditation process. Even newly organized
suppliers were able to participate in the program,”
Lacson said, adding that verification showed Quedancor
accredited input suppliers who were not among those
accredited by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) under
its Swine Breeder Farm Accreditation Program.
On the
other hand, he noted that Malacañang, in July 2004,
transferred Quedancor from the Department of Agriculture
to the Office of the President.
“Considering the said findings, the COA stated that the
recoverability of said outstanding loans is deemed
remote and that there is a likelihood that the
government will lose from the said program,” Lacson
lamented.
The 2006
COA report stated that about P176.40 million cannot be
properly accounted for. |
