THE top executive of the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), president and chief executive, Dave M. Almarinez, is now facing serious criminal charges before the Ombudsman, among them, malversation of public funds, illegal use of public funds, entering into prohibited transactions, swindling and corruption.
Quoting from the reports of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the performance of the PITC, a government owned and controlled corporation under the National Development Company (NDC), lawyer Lorenzo ‘Larry’ Gadon said he was compelled to sue PITC after noting that already, the PITC, as of 2019, has more than P9 billion “unutilized funds” in its possession transferred to the company by at least 17 national government agencies for their procurement needs.
Created under PD 252 in 1973, among the PITC’s core responsibilities is to provide “the most efficient and cost-effective procurement services” to other government agencies.
But citing the experience of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which placed some P1.35 billion to PITC in 2016, Gadon said the PITC actually only managed to procure some P311.97 million worth of firearms, grenade launchers and delivery trucks, for a delivery rate of just above 23 percent.
The COA also called out the PITC for not returning to the government agencies concerned the money they turned over for their procurement needs and for placing them instead in the money market, which is contrary to existing government accounting policy.
Gadon claimed this is akin to the PITC “gambling” away the money entrusted to it.
Gadon, who gained respect after successfully campaigning for the removal of then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2018 on the ground of her lack of integrity by not complying with the law against the non-submission of her ‘SALN’ ( statement of assets, liabilities and net worth)), said there appears to be an “unseen hand” inside the PITC that has been “abusing” its mandate in order for the company to earn money by simply not performing its procurement mandate under its own charter.
The same process of inadvertent delay in procurement by the PITC was also experienced by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) since 2018, after contracting the PITC to undertake its procurement of farm machineries worth more than P206 million under ‘SIDA’ (Sugar Industry Development Act).