By Butch Fernandez & Joel R. San Juan
Malacañang left it up to the Department of Finance (DOF) to probe Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Alberto D. Lina’s move voiding a P650-million contract earlier awarded to a competitor of the Lina-owned E-Konek to set up a modern integrated customs processing system and a National Single Window seen as indispensable to the country’s participation in the Asean economic integration.
Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said on Monday the Office of the President has yet to get hold of documents detailing the role of Lina, if any, in rescinding the multimillion-peso contract that the BOC chief’s firm failed to win in the initial bidding.
“We have no info on that,” Coloma told the BusinessMirror when asked if the Palace was mounting an independent inquiry into the matter.
The secretary indicated, however, that Malacañang is not ruling anything out at this point and was relying on the DOF to validate the information first.
“If verified, the DOF is supervising department, we will await word from them on this,” Coloma added.
Lawyer Harry Roque, counsel of winning bidder Omniprime Marketing Inc.-Intrasoft International Inc. joint venture, raised issues of “conflict of interest” against Lina for annulling the P650-million contract that Lina’s company, E-Konek, lost in the earlier BOC bidding.
Roque protested that the Customs chief’s action canceling the awarded contract by his predecessor “reeks of the foul smell of a clear conflict of interest.”
He noted that Lina owns 96.48- percent stake in E-Konek which was one of five losing bidders in the BOC project.
Roque recalled that the P650-million project was awarded to the Omniprime-Intrasoft joint venture on April 13, 2015, and the BOC contract was set to be signed be the end of that month but Lina was appointed to replace Commissioner John Sevilla as BOC chief on April 24.
The lawyer added that two weeks after assuming the post, Lina junked the initial bidding results and subsequently notified the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) it was voiding the contract earlier awarded to the joint venture.
Plunder
AT a news briefing, Omniprime President Annabelle Margaroli, Atty. Roque said his client is considering the filing of plunder charges against Lina for causing injury to Omniprime and for entering into a government contract with private interest.
Roque further said Omniprime will seek redress before the trial court to stop Lina’s decision to cancel the contract, which he said has been successfully bidded out by the DBM.
Roque claimed that “one of the five losing bidders in the project, E-Konek, is a company where Lina has a 96.48-percent stake.”
The lawyer said the issue of conflict of interest against Lina is further bolstered by the fact that “the corporation behind the current antiquated systems used by the Bureau of Customs—Webb Fontaine—has beneficial business relations with E-Konek.”
“We will not hesitate to file the necessary criminal, civil and administrative cases against anyone—including Lina himself—found to be violating our client’s constitutionally vested property rights,” the lawyer said.
“On April 13 the DBM issued in favor of Omniprime a notice of highest rated bid through a letter of invitation wherein our client was invited to immediately start negotiation on the contract provisions right after the opening of the financial documents.”
The contract negotiation was finalized since April 23, 2015 and that Omniprime was just awaiting the final contract being prepared by the DBM-Procurement Service (DBP-PS) for signing before the end of the month.
But Roque said what took months for the DBM-PS to conduct the entire bidding process for the project only took Lina two weeks from his assumption as BOC head to cancel.
2 comments
tuwid na daan daw my ass hahaha
How can the DOF investigate Lina when it was the one who recommended Lina as BOC chief? This is for the DOJ and the Ombudsman to investigate. Based on my observation of this government, since Lina is an ally, Malacanang will dilly dally.