COA flags OTS over P279-M airport equipment

The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) over its alleged failure to utilize airport security screening equipment amounting to P279 million.

“Purchased by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in 2013, the equipment were not fully utilized because some of these were defective or unserviceable, resulting in reduced security for passengers and their baggage,” the COA said in its latest report.

The OTS is an attached agency of the DOTr, which is mandated to ensure the security of air, land and sea transportation systems in the country.

Based on the audit report released by the COA on its website on May 28, the DOTr (formerly Department of Transportation and Communications), entered into a contract with Defense and Protective Systems Phil. Inc. (DPSPI) for the supply, installation, testing and commission of screening equipment to be used in airports nationwide on Dec. 27, 2013.

“The procurement was designed to eliminate potential risks to security associated with air cargo, including introduction of explosives and incendiary devices in shipment of undetected hazardous material aboard an aircraft,” the COA said.

Based on the report, DPSPI was able to deliver the equipment to the different airports nationwide and received by the OTS on several dates from 2014 to 2016.

The equipment delivered include 26 initial X-ray scanners (P79.497 million), 31 final X-ray scanners (P71.261 million), 11 cargo X-ray scanners (P54.123 million), 57 walk thru metal detectors or WTMD (P22.581million), 375 handheld metal detectors or HHMD (P8,858 million), 185 cameras with data video recorder or DVR (P28.75 million), 185 units of uninterrupted power supply or UPS (P9.25 million), 182 constant voltage transformers or CVT (4.732 million) and 169 chairs (P422,500).

As of Dec. 31, 2016, the COA said it was able to trace to 12 airports nationwide the physical existence of 434 units of purchased equipment.

The COA said the remaining equipment recorded in the OTS books in 2017 would be confirmed in 2018.

Based on its inspection, the COA said 369 of the equipment were operational while 24 were defective and three were not utilized.

The defective equipment include 17 units of HHMD, four units of UPS, two CVTs and one initial X-ray scanner.

The COA said a cargo Xray in Iloilo was kept at the airport’s engineering and maintenance building due to a lack of space while a UPS and a CVT at the Davao airport were not utilized and were meant to serve as “spare units” in case of a power failure.

“The defective and unutilized equipment stall the inspection of passengers and baggage at the airports, thus, defeats the purpose for which the equipment were procured,” the COA said.

The audit body proposed to the OTS to require the supplier to repair or replace the defective equipment.