Customs catches Un contractor smuggling satellite equipment for WiFi project
A foreign contractor handpicked by the United Nations to implement President Duterte’s free WiFi project to rural areas has been found to have committed technical smuggling half a dozen times by the Bureau of Customs.
Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero identified the foreign contractor as SpeedCast International, an Australian telecom company that the UN Development Program had hired to implement the P1.4billion Philippine-funded project.
Guerrero submitted the April 12 investigation report to DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan II, saying SpeedCast had “undervalued” six shipments to the Philippines in the first half of 2020, when the Australian company sought bankruptcy protection just six months after being selected by the UNDP.
According to the Guerrero report, the Bureau of Customs had obtained e-mailed correspondence and text messages, as well as other documents, “which showed that SpeedCast directly transacted with (its) Customs broker...as to the Customs value to be declared for the imported equipment.”
SpeedCast, according to the investigation, acquired the satellite equipment from Hughes Network Systems of Maryland, which had provided the correct invoices.
According to an internal DICT investigation, SpeedCast had also initially contested payment of VAT for its contracted services to the Philippine government, claiming that the company was based overseas.
“As the DICT is the lead implementing agency for the UNDP-DICT project, we submit that it may direct the UNDP to take significant actions against any errant foreign entity, especially one which is found to have violated Philippine laws,” Guerrero said.
Despite being a government-funded project, the Department of Information and Communications Technology in 2019, under then acting secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., hired the