MANILA, Philippines - After at least eight years of investigation, the Commission on Audit (COA) has completed its probe and found the Bureau of Customs (BOC) guilty of buying overpriced mobile X-ray trucks from a Chinese company in 2006.
In a special audit report released yesterday, state auditors said the 30 non-intrusive container scanners purchased through a government-to-government loan between the Philippines and China for P7.9 billion was overpriced by P4.215 billion.
Investigation showed the mobile x-ray trucks procured from the Chinese firm Nuc-tech Co. Ltd. could have been bought for only P3.7 billion.
The COA report said the equipment acquired by the BOC was not only expensive but were expensive to maintain and are inferior compared with other available machines.
State auditors said it sent a quotation to a leading international supplier of scanners similar to those that the BOC currently uses.
The COA report said the BOC should coordinate with the Department of Finance and revisit the two purchase contracts entered into by the BOC and Nuctech Co. Ltd. and evaluate the contract price by benchmarking with other international suppliers.
State auditors said the BOC should likewise study the provisions of the supply contracts and the loan agreement with China and try negotiating with the supplier and creditor to lower the price of the machines.
The same COA report noted that it costs P9.5 million per year for Nuctech to repair one unit while other international firms could provide the same service for P6.3 million.
State auditors said from January 2009 to June 2015, the BOC entered into contracts for the repair and maintenance of 29 x-ray machines at a total cost of P1.1 billion per year.
BOC posts P48-B deficit in 2016
Meanwhile, the BOC failed to meet any of its revenue collection targets in the first half of the year under its former commissioner, Alberto Lina.
BOC records showed Lina failed to arrest the dismal revenue collection, resulting in a P48.05-billion deficit for the first semester of 2016 where it was only able to collect P190.27 billion out of its P238.32 billion target.
All ports districts of BOC were also unable to hit their respective goals in April and May.
Weeks before Lina stepped down from the bureau, President Duterte named the BOC as among the three most corrupt agencies in the government, along with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Land Transportation Office.
Last month, Duterte ordered BOC chief Nicanor Faeldon to rid the agency of corrupt officials and personnel.
“I already have the raw information (on corrupt BOC officials) but I still have to validate it... I hope Faeldon would do his thing and stop corruption in Customs,” the President said, adding that unscrupulous BOC officials and employees have “long lived in luxury.” – With Edu Punay