THE leadership of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) has been directed to look into the status of its projects involving the procurement and delivery of its supplies and equipment following findings by the Commission on Audit (COA) that their contracts have not been met.
PNP chief General Guillermo Eleazar issued the order on Monday to SAF officials following the state auditor’s report of “unmet contracts” in the police’s elite commando unit.
“I have directed the leadership of the SAF to determine and immediately report to me why some of these procurement contracts have not materialized,” Eleazar said, adding that he has also asked SAF officials to report the current status of the contracts.
In its 2020 audit report, the COA said at least 29 procurement contracts entered into by the SAF with various suppliers have not yet been delivered. As such, it recommended termination of the contracts.
The contracts involved the acquisition of troop carriers, armored vehicles, machine guns, rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, pistols, mortar, parachutes and tactical vests, among others, which Eleazar said are needed to improve the operational capability of SAF.
The PNP chief’s order to the SAF followed similar directives to police regional offices (PRO) on Monday to look into the discrepancies in records for the transfer of firearms and body armor vests, as pointed out by a COA audit.
The government auditor said the books of accounts of 11 PROs did not match the number of items that were supposedly transferred to them, as indicated in the records of the PNP national headquarters.
The items included 9mm pistols, basic assault rifles, enhanced combat helmets and tactical vests.
Among the police offices named by the COA are those in the Ilocos region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol Region, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Cordillera Administrative Region and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Eleazar assured the COA that the PNP’s Accounting Division, Directorate for Comptrollership and the Directorate for Logistics are already checking the records to make the necessary adjustments, correct the supposed discrepancies and ensure that all items were delivered to the concerned police regional offices.
“I already directed the concerned police offices to check why the records of the National Headquarters and the Police Regional Offices do not match. They should reconcile the records and correct the discrepancies to avoid possible issues in the deployment of weapons and other equipment to the Police Regional Offices,” Eleazar said.
The COA said there was lack of records to show that the firearms and body armor vests were turned over to the police regional offices across the country.