THE chairman and members of the Bids and Awards Committee of the government-owned National Printing Office resigned en masse on Monday due to the alleged pressure from their newly appointed director to favor certain bidders for equipment-lease contracts within the agency.
The officials criticized Francisco Vales Jr. for favoring Topbest Printing Corp. for the leasing of machine runs contrary to bidding rules.
The members of the BAC’s secretariat likewise resigned for the same reasons.
“This resignation is prompted by the ‘too much’ pressure in the bidding of leasing of printing machines,” the members of the NPO BAC said in their resignation letter addressed to Vales.
“Your instruction to renew the contract of Topbest for the leasing of machine runs contrary to the essence of public bidding.”
The NPO officials said they had hoped that Vales would heed President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions against corruption being a former employee of the City Government of Davao, but “the pressure you are exerting on the BAC is simply not acceptable.”
A copy of the letter was furnished Communications Secretary Martin Andanar whose office is in charge of all government communication platforms, but he had yet to respond to it.
Tensions had been simmering in the NPO after Vales, who was appointed by Duterte in June, was observed consorting himself with former officials of the NPO who were previously suspended if not dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman for irregular transactions.