By Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star) Updated August 06, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Newly appointed Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director general Joel Villanueva has ordered the holding of payment for the remaining P39-million alleged “ghost deliveries” in the agency’s regional centers. Villanueva said TESDA was supposed to pay for either inexistent, defective or non-compliance with product specifications provided in its contracts with suppliers. “We called the different regional offices and were told that they did not receive the items for vocational trainings while other products were different from those specified in the contract and there were also products that were defective.” He also suspended the awarding of a P73-million contract for the procurement of computers and other IT products because the prices of such items have already gone down by P10 million. “They explained that prices of IT products have gone down since the bidding of the project so even if they would say there is no irregularity in the bidding, we had to cancel it so we could save some P10 million,” he explained. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz earlier advised Villanueva to review all existing contracts of the agency since she received reports that some of them have no funds and are questionable. Villanueva said he also directed the legal department to look into the reported P1 billion scholarship debt of TESDA from various educational institutions and training centers.
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