Syjuco charged with graft
The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has filed administrative charges against TESDA director general Augusto "Boboy" Syjuco and five other top-ranking officials for allegedly allowing a highly-anomalous printing transaction to proceed and blatantly disregarding accounting rules and regulations.
Charged along with Syjuco were deputy director general Santiago M. Yabut Jr., Atty. Marjorie Docdocil, Ma. Lourdes Villanueva, Clifford Paragua and Brenda Furugganan, in their capacities as chairman and members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The case was docketed as PAGC-06-0158-ADM, with the Investigation Office of the PAGC as the nominal complainant.
PAGC chairman Dr. Constancia P. de Guzman ordered Syjuco and the other respondents to file their counter-affidavits to the allegations made by the PAGC Investigation Office within 10 days from their receipt of the charge sheet.
In her four-page complaint, PAGC director for investigation Atty. Mylen H. Gonzales said that Syjuco and his co-respondents failed to exercise their duty to stop an apparently anomalous transaction for the printing of 250,000 copies of the "Salabat for the Filipino Soul II" for P9.2 million.
Gonzales faulted the BAC headed by Yabut for recommending the award of the contract of services to Grand C Graphics after it supposedly conducted a limited source bidding.
That's because the conditions required for that mode of procurement do not exist, she said.
Moreover, the supposed winning bidder failed to post the required performance security in violation of R.A. 9184, she said.
Despite these glaring irregularities, Syjuco, as head of the procuring entity, even went on to sign the contract of services, although it was well within his authority to declare a "failure of bidding" or not to award the contract.
Gonzales said that Syjuco also "exhibited a blatant disregard for the required accounting rules and regulations.
No less than Syjuco, she said, who facilitated the issuance of the Obligation Slip and approved the document even it lacked the certification of the Budget Chief that would have indicated the availability of appropriation and funds for the purpose.
Syjuco also abused his authority when he facilitated the issuance of the corresponding Disbursement Voucher by signing this document without the required signature of the agency's accountant, Gonzales said.
These acts of Syjuco "constitute grave misconduct," she said.
The controversy over the "Salabat" book deal broke out late last year after TESDA employees union SAMAKA-TESDA president Annie Geron exposed the apparent irregularities in the transaction.
In particular, Geron questioned the manner by which the transaction was carried out, especially after it came out in a Commission on Audit (COA) report that all the documents, including the release of the check, were completed in just one day.
Geron has since become the target of harassment by Syjuco, who tried to place her under a 90-day preventive suspension and transferred union officers to other regions as a form of vengeance against those who joined the protest actions.
Geron said the filing of this complaint by the PAGC vindicates her and the union officials.
"We won round one of this fight," Geron said. "We expect more victories as the PAGC and Ombudsman validates our allegations of corruption against Syjuco."