Senate Finance panel looking into alleged breach of PSA-BSP pact

MANILA – Senate Committee on Finance Chairperson Senator Grace Poe on Wednesday requested the Commission on Audit (COA) to submit its findings on the alleged breach of agreement between the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on the printing of National ID cards.

During the budget deliberation of the PSA, Poe stressed the importance of the findings after COA earlier raised the concern with the PSA that BSP allegedly subcontracted AllCard to print National ID cards even if it was stated in the memorandum of agreement by both parties that subcontracting is not allowed.

"This is actually a grave concern because if they blatantly violated the memorandum of agreement, that's something that can cancel out the entire agreement. I mean, BSP might be liable for something here," Poe said.

PSA Civil Registrar General Dennis Mapa said they released P1.4 billion to the BSP for the printing of cards which costs P50 each.

He said this is about 90 percent of 55.5 million cards that they have agreed to be printed.

"Ang binigay kasi nila sa amin na information (The information that they gave us) is that they terminated the contract of AllCard for the production of the blank national ID," he told Poe.

"I think we have to investigate further kung ano ba tong AllCard na to (about this AllCard). I think the reason why this is terminated now is maybe the Board of the BSP realized na teka muna, baka (wait, maybe) they are in violation of something because the memorandum of agreement is pretty clear," Poe said.

Later, Poe said AllCard was also the contractor which caused the delays in printing of the driver's license cards of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

"For sure, titingnan at titingnan ito ng mga senators na andaming reklamo sa mga IDs tapos andaming reklamo sa driver's license tapos kinuha pa din natin yung AllCard? Para naman tayong nagpaloko nang ilang beses sa kanila (senators will look into this, that despite lots of complaints over the IDs and aso lots of complaints on the driver's license, yet we still contracted AllCard? It's like we allowed them to fool us again)," Poe said.

The BSP, in a statement earlier, asserted its adherence to procurement guidelines and its agreement with the PSA, saying their personnel conducted the operation, while AllCard just provided the equipment, raw materials, and technical support.

The BSP said COA did not include any findings related to subcontracting in its BSP Annual Review report, contrary to allegations based on the COA's audit of PSA. (PNA)