‘Excessive’: COA criticizes NTC for buying 44 smartphones worth P2.1M

MANILA – The Audit Commission (COA) has denounced the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for its acquisition of 44 smartphones worth P2.1 million, saying that this “seemed excessive for their needs.”

In the 2019 audit report on the NTC released recently, the auditors noted that purchases made by NTC’s central office (CO) and its National Capital Region office in 2018 and 2019 were simply used to measure the “quality of experience” of common mobile broadband users.

The report also noted that 10 staff members who did the actual work for the project were not even given mobile phones and had to borrow the units from other staff who were not involved in the initiative.

“This condition indicates that the number of mobile phones purchased may be excessive for the intended purpose and that it may not be necessary to purchase new mobile phones in calendar year 2019,” the audit team said.

The NTC admitted to the audit team that it was branch directors and officers in charge, including its technical staff, who received the phones.

EXPENSIVE PHONES

The audit report also noted that the CO purchased 22 phones at a unit price of P49,999 or a total of P1.099 million, while the NCR office purchased 7 units at P46,500 each.

The audit report said that if the CO had bought the same phones with cheaper price tags obtained by the NCR office, the government could have saved P76,780.

“Apparently, the public tender carried out by the CO did not achieve the expected result of obtaining the most advantageous price for the government,” said the audit team.

However, CO management reasoned that there was only one bidder for the project.

“According to the online market survey conducted, there are sellers offering lower prices, but these sellers or distributors have not participated or submitted their bids in the public bidding process,” NTC management told the audit team.

But the audit team insisted that corrective measures could have been taken such as adjusting the approved budget for the contract, given that they already knew that cheaper phones are available on the market.

“The failure of the administration to take such actions led it to enter into a contract that can be considered disadvantageous to the government,” the audit team said.

The NTC is primarily responsible for regulation and quasi-judicial
functions related to the supervision, adjudication and control of radiocommunications, telecommunications and broadcasting in the country, including cable television facilities and services.