(1st of a series)
Following adverse findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) on their 2023 transactions, local government units are now including the acquisition of airline tickets directly from airlines in their Annual Procurement Plans (APP).
In the Annual Audit Reports for CY 2023 released by the agency recently, it found that seven towns did not have specific appropriations for the purchase of airline tickets in the APP or Supplemental APP, with one LGU acquiring the tickets through travel agencies in disregard of pertinent provisions of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
In Bagamanoc, the state auditors said the municipality incurred a total of P281,598.78 in airfare expenses for the travels of its officials and employees during the year.
Verification disclosed that the procurements were not included in the APP or Supplemental APP, while there was no resolution approved by the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) relative to the mode of procurement to be adopted.
Further scrutiny of the disbursement vouchers and liquidation reports revealed that airline tickets costing P82,662.70 were procured through cash advances by end-users from various travel agencies instead of directly booking from commercial airlines or service providers.
The travels involved were for conventions of councilors, budget officers, geodetic engineers, planning and development coordinators, fiscal and budget managers, and civil registrars in Metro Manila, Bacolod, Puerto Galera and Boracay. Eleven of the tickets were purchased from Cedric and Mae Travel Agency and WCA Travel and Tours, Inc.
It stressed that under the Negotiated Procurement – Direct Retail Purchase, procuring entities were given the authority to delegate the procurement of airline tickets to end-users, provided that it shall be directly acquired from service providers.
The auditors also pointed out that the itinerary receipts issued by the travel agencies did not include detailed price/fare breakdowns, thus, it could not be determined if the airfares paid were the actual ticket prices at the time of booking.
The same violations of procurement rules were committed by Bato LGU, which incurred a total of P881,206.17 in airfare expenses for its officials and employees in 2023.
Of the amount, P293,806.84 in airline tickets were procured by the end-users from Cedric and Mae Travel Agency which accounted for 19 of the 26 tickets purchased from travel agencies.
In Pandan, the LGU also bought P180,194.69 of airline tickets despite the procurement’s non-inclusion in the APP, with a third of them procured from travel agencies.
The other LGUs which procured airline tickets in violation of procurement rules were: San Andres town, P589,657.02; Viga, P154,038.31; and Virac, P786,602.08, with P346,050.76 acquired by the concerned officials mostly from Cedric and Mae Travel Agency.