The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday (Aug. 17) said the Php173.8 million supply contract for family food packs (FFPs) in the DSWD Caraga Regional Office was done through emergency procurement due to the onslaught of Typhoon Odette in December 2021.

Asst. Secretary and DSWD spokesperson Romel Lopez said the findings of the 2022 Commission on Audit (COA) Report have already been corrected as the emergency procurement conducted by the Caraga Field Office was justified due to the effects of Typhoon Odette.

“It must be noted that the supplier is engaged in the food business and has been providing services for years, notably in the provision of family food packs, raw materials, and goods for the supplementary feeding program in the Caraga Region,” the DSWD spokesperson said in response to the COA finding that “the unqualified supplier was found not engaged in the trade of food products.”

In the 2022 audit report on the DSWD, state auditors noted that the Caraga Regional Office awarded 93 percent of the contract to Bodequita Enterprises & Services, the supplier of FFPs to the DSWD field office.

“The concerned supplier has already submitted their BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) certificate of registration that reflects their line of business, which allows them to engage in food supplies and pre-packed family food packs. The document was submitted to the audit team last March (2023),” Asst. Sec. Lopez pointed out.

Going forward, the DSWD spokesperson said the Caraga FO’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) has assured the Central Office that “all succeeding bidding projects will require the prospective bidders to submit and attach their BIR certificate of registration for further evaluation.”

Asst. Sec. Lopez pointed out that the concerned DSWD field office has already been doing corrective measures on the COA findings that the distributed relief goods in the Zamboanga Peninsula Region were not halal-certified and of low quality and that a brand of canned tuna which appeared to be an imitation product and that the 6 kilos of rice included in the FFPs appeared to be of poor quality.

“The DSWD Management has given a directive to all regional offices that rice of poor quality should not be packed and shall be immediately replaced with good quality rice. Moreover, the Central Office has issued a memorandum to consider putting the ‘Halal Certified’ sticker and list of the goods included in the family food packs,” Asst. Sec. Lopez said.

The DSWD spokesperson also said that based on DSWD records the previous administration of Secretary Rolando Bautista has already addressed the issue by returning the questioned rice to the National Food Authority (NFA) last January 2022 due to discolored grain with quality not fit for human consumption.

“As per the current administration’s policy, our disaster response cluster has been working on ways to improve our relief distribution and mechanism, which calls for the immediate replacement of compromised relief items by the suppliers. With the Buong Bansa Handa program, we hope to improve our supply chain in a timely and efficient manner utilizing both government and private supply channels,” Asst. Sec. Lopez said.#