Third-party POGO auditor complied with all bidding requirements —PAGCOR chief

The third-party auditor that got the multi-billion peso contract for the assessment of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) has complied with all bidding documents, PAGCOR chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco said Thursday.

"I don't see any irregularity in the contract because if you will go through the documents that they did submit during the time  of the bidding, one thing is clear, they complied with the requirements of the [terms of reference]," Tengco told Super Radyo dzBB in a mix of Filipino and English.

Last Monday, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian flagged the contract between PAGCOR and Global ComRCI, questioning what he described as a "spurious" bank certificate issued by a certain Soleil Chartered Bank indicating that Global ComRCI was compliant with the requirements to serve as the PAGCOR’s POGO consultant.

Gatchalian also said the third-party auditor has no business address and business permit.

Tengco said  PAGCOR's bids and awards committee (BAC) found that Soleil Chartered Bank has different branches in big cities around the globe like New York, London and Milan during its bidding for the third-party auditor.

He added that Soleil has certified that the Global ComRCI has around US$25 million at the time it submitted its bid.

"Nu'ng panahong may post-qualification after the bidding, maliwanag naman po na nakapag-comply sa requirements 'yung nasabing third-party auditor [During the post-qualification process after the bidding, it was clear that the third-party auditor was able to comply with all the requirements]," Tengco said.

The PAGCOR chairman also dismissed criticisms that PAGCOR did not practice due diligence in awarding the contract to Global ComRCI.

Still, Tengco said PAGCOR's legal department is studying the contract to find any "deficiencies."

"Hindi po basta-basta arbitrarily, can terminate unilaterally a contract. 'Yan po ay limang taon nang kontrata. Kailangan po talagang ibigay ang due process at pag-aralan nang mabuti kung ano ang mga hakbang na gagawin. That is the basic principle of law that everybody should be given due process," he said.

(We cannot arbitrarily, unilaterally terminate a five-year contract. There must be due process and we must study first all our moves.)

So far, Tengco said PAGCOR has paid the firm around P800 million in 2019 and 2020.

Under his term, he said PAGCOR has not paid Global ComRCI yet.  —KBK, GMA Integrated News