CABANATUAN CITY—The National Food Authority is looking into the possible conspiracy between agency executives and employees and some unscrupulous businessmen in the misclassification of 32,695 bags of unmilled rice (palay).
NFA Region 3 director Amadeo de Guzman said it is possible that some of those being investigated may have conspired with some businessmen from whom they bought the poor quality grains and classified them as good quality.
“We are looking into the criminal aspects of this case because they may have bought palay from some businessmen who sold poor-quality palay and later made them appear as good quality,” he said.
He said such practices constitute graft, gross negligence and dishonesty.
Earlier, De Guzman, on orders of NFA administrator Renan Dalisay relieved two top officials, five procurement officers and five employees of the agency in Nueva Ecija in connection with the misclassification of palay.
Relieved were Nueva Ecija NFA provincial manager George Roca, assistant provincial manager Daniel Valenzuela, solar dryer engineer Edmar Torres, quality control officers Cesar Paul C. De Guia and Adam B. Rayo; pest control officer Leo Thereso G. Ramos, acting provincial quality assurance officer Jimmy M. Mallari and and five other employees whose identities he withheld.
De Guzman said four more employees are being investigated by the four-man probe team led by Marcelino Villar Jr. If found guilty, they could face automatic dismissal from the service, he said.
Dalisay has appointed De Guzman and assistant regional director Marciano Alvarez to replace Roca and Valenzuela, in concurrent capacities.
Aside from Villar’s probe team, also conducting separate investigations are the security and investigation services department (SSID), the internal audit services department (IASD) and the technical research and services department (TRSD).
De Guzman said the 32,695 bags were not typhoon-damaged but misclassified. He explained that instead of being declared as wet with a moisture content of 15-30 percent, they were made to appear as dry and clean.
Because of the misclassification, the procurement officers made it appear that the procurement costs reached P27.8 million when the actual cost was only P17.9 million, or an over declaration of P9.9 million, he added.
In a report to Dalisay, De Guzman earlier said that a quality audit of the palay procured in the province revealed that the samples procured by the procurement team fell below NFA’s quality standards.
He said he initiated the audit after noticing that the palay stocks at the solar drying pavement in the regional compound here had been increasing, despite receipts of stocks from procurement and drying operations.
“Because the solar drying pavement was clean, the palay stocks being dried should decrease, not increase which is what exactly happened,” he said.
Before Typhoon “Lando” hit land, Dalisay had asked for a budget of P350 million from the Department of Budget and Management to allow the agency to buy storm-damaged palay that may have been salvaged by the farmers. The request was denied, thus, NFA is not authorized to buy storm-damaged palay.