Inspection reports of P4.4-B in govt transactions deleted in PS-DBM submissions: Pangilinan

AT LEAST 19 documents previously uploaded in a Google Drive submitted by the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (PS-DBM) went missing or were deleted from the same folder, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan said on Friday.

The documents involve government transactions worth P4.4 billion.

"The missing documents, most of them were [on] testing kits from Pharmally ... Nadownload [namin] yung isang dokumento na nagpapatunay na 2 months na lang expired na yung testing kits [at] tinanggap pa rin ng DBM-PS," Pangilinan said during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the Covid-19 budget utilization of the Department of Health.

These documents are part of the submissions of PS-DBM to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

According to Pangilinan, his staff went through the documents on the morning of September 10. Said documents were submitted in a Google Drive folder earlier in the morning with a cover letter signed by Atty. Jasonmer Uayan, OIC-ED of the PS-DBM dated September 9.

When the staff went back to download more documents from the Google Drive in the afternoon of September 10, it was found that some folders that were originally there in the morning were now missing or have been deleted.

"These includes the inspection and acceptance reports, inspection and evaluation reports, inspection and certification of acceptance report. One of these reports, doon namin nakita iyong 6-month expiry. Doon natin nakita iyong mga tinanggap," Pangilinan said.

Each folder was named after a Purchase Order. At least six folders were deleted or were missing:

- 19,061 Thermoguns from Philippine Blue Cross Biotech Corporation
- Various Medicines and Vitamins from Medico Exelente Marketing
- 8,000 kits BGI Real-time fluorescent RTPCR kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation
- 2,000 kits of A*Star Fortitude Kit 2.0 COVID- 19 RT-PCR Test
- 41,400 kits BGI Real-time fluorescent RT-PCR kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation
- MGIEasy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction kit from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation

Of the at least 19 documents, the Office of Senator Pangilinan was only able to download nine before they disappeared.

The downloaded documents showed PS-DBM still accepted near-expiry testing kits, which Pangilinan revealed in an earlier hearing.

"Mukhang meron po talagang naglilinis... Are we being hoodwinked? Are documents being withheld? Is there a cover-up?" Pangilinan said.

Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's lawyer Queenie Evangelista corroborated the disappearance of the documents from the Google Drive and noted that the transaction was the last signed by former budget undersecretary Lloyd Lao.

"After making the timeline ... we found that the whole set of documents were missing already from the Google Drive originally submitted by the PS-DBM," she said

PS-DBM OIC-Executive Director Uayan was unable to respond to the question due to his absence after contracting Covid-19.