DND officials face criminal raps over chopper deal

OFFICIALS of the Department of National Defense (DND) may have broken the law, particularly Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, when they insisted on acquiring 21 refurbished UH-1D helicopters through negotiated contract despite repeated warnings by the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) against it.

Documents obtained by The Manila Times that were cross-checked with the online version on the GPPB website indicated that the DND pulled a fast one on the GPPB headed by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad when it claimed that it had conducted two failed biddings as of October 2012 when, in fact, the first public bidding for the project was conducted on December 4 that year.