‘MULTI-BILLION’ SERVICE PROVIDER RACKETS SHOULD STOP
I’M referring to revelations made by Justice Secretary Boying Remulla last Monday regarding the presence of service providers in some government agencies which are earning billions annually, their revenues dwarfing the income of public offices.
I listened as Sec. Remulla spoke from his heart, no stopping a bit to describe the ‘multi-billion racket’ of some government service providers as he called for a need to review their contracts and stop their operations which he said benefits only a few but affects all Filipinos.
A former Cavite governor, veteran lawmaker and a Bar topnotcher, Sec. Remulla did not mince any words in identifying service providers with contracts at the Bureau of Customs, the Land Transportation Office and the Land Registration Authority.
During the launching of the E-Booking or PNP Digital Booking System at the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame, the DOJ chief revealed that one main problem facing the young Marcos administration is the presence of ‘rackets’ being committed by some government service providers.
Listen to his words: “One problem is yung racket ng mga nagpo-provide ng computerized system sa gobyerno kasama ang BOC, LTO, LRA at marami pang iba na tila may problema tayo. Katulad ng sa LRA, yung provider ng computer system, ang kinikita sa bawat taon mahigit P15 billion, yung nakukuha ng LRA, mga P3 billion lang,” Sec. Remulla said.
The DOJ chief said that at the BOC, the service provider has been there for nearly 12 years and getting P65 per customs’ transaction. He added that at the LTO, the old service provider Stradcom still refuses to give its database to the same office.
“Kawawa ang taumbayan kaya this has to end. Kaya I laud, I praise and give due credit to the PNP for having an independent e-system that will not allow itself to be part of a racket,” Sec. Remulla said.
Sec. Remulla particularly lauded PNP chief, General Jun Azurin and PNP Director for Investigation and Detective Management, Major Gen. Ely Cruz for coming up with such a brilliant idea which will surely benefit the government and the entire Filipino nation.
“Sana po matuloy na matigil na mga racket na kawawa ang taumbayan dahil ang sinisingil ay ang sa taumbayan. Me P75 na karga sa lisensiya, sana po tumigil na yan and we’re doing the stops right now. We will renegotiate these contracts para matigil na rackets na yan,” said the top DOJ official who obviously is not afraid to face the wrath of other people expected to be affected by his revelations.
Service providers in government agencies really make a killing, no doubt about it as soon as they manage to enter into a contract with a particular agency using their high connections. To illustrate a point, I would cite a previous case in which a service provider managed to corner a contract to issue automated police clearances in a big metropolitan police district many years ago.
Let’s say that as part of the agreement, the service provider will get 50 percent of the clearance fee owing to their expenses, the other half to be divided by the city government and the local police headquarters to help in their operational and administrative expenses. If the clearance fee, let’s say is P100, that means the service provider will get P50.
Multiply that by 500 a day times five days a week times four weeks each month and presto, the service provider will easily get around P500,000 every month. That’s around P6 million a year. Just do the arithmetic if the service fee being asked is P1,000 or P2,000 or more in other government agencies.
I was listening when Sec. Remulla congratulated the PNP leadership for coming up with the E-Booking System or Digital Booking System which he said he will recommend to be a template of the government to help increase its revenues at virtually no cost at all.
“Congratulations PNP at kayo ngayon ang basehan ng reporma,” the DOJ chief said. I could not imagine how much the country will earn if all other government agencies outside of the PNP will be able to develop their respective digital services without contracting service providers.
Gen. Azurin said Sec. Remulla really appreciated the E-Booking system initiated by Maj. Gen. Cruz since it showed that the PNP is now capable of coming up with such a program.
“Ang sabi niya, me mga service providers na mas kumikita pa kesa sa isang agency na me kontrata sila. Mas lumalabas na mas malaki pa ang kinikita ng provider kesa sa agency kaya he (Remulla) expect na more of this kind will be initiated para mawala na ang parusa sa taumbayan who pay so much pero puwede naman pal ana very minimal ang cost,” the top cop told me.
Maj. Gen. Cruz said that the E-Booking system is free and will save the police force a huge amount of money which can be used for other programs. Before, the fingerprints of arrested lawbreakers being subjected to booking procedures in PNP stations are being taken thru the use of so-called 10-print cards which cost nearly P10 each.
These 10-Print Cards taken by police stations are submitted to provincial police offices before being forwarded to regional police headquarters and eventually to the PNP Forensic Group headquarters. The process not only cost money but also sometimes affect the cross-matching procedures due to many factors.
Under the E-Booking system of the police force, heavy-duty fingerprint scanners will be used to take the fingerprints of arrested law offenders and people seeking National Police Clearance for inclusion in the database of the PNP-FG’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
Maj. Gen. Cruz said that thru the system, police will also have a much easier and more accurate program to identify the owners of fingerprints left in a crime scene. The official said that the system allows police to detect the owner of a fingerprint within seconds.
The PNP-DIDM director said the system would be very helpful to the police force since at the very least, if 800 criminals are being arrested and booked everyday, their fingerprints will be stored in the AFIS database along with the over 15,000 Filipinos getting the National Police Clearance daily.
“With that database, it would be very easy for our forensic group experts investigating a crime scene to conduct a cross-matching in their database and find the real suspects,” he said even as he also thanked the PNP Information Technology Management Service for helping them come up with the system to fight criminality and at the same time improve the PNP’s crime solution efficiency.
