ILOILO City – Twenty police Mahindra Enforcer Patrol and a Mahindra Scorpio Patrol in Western Visayas were “not serviceable” anymore, a technical inspection report of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) showed.
The Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) 2015 procurement of of 2,054 Mahindra patrol vehicles worth P1.89 billion.
Among others, according to state auditors, the PNP failed to conduct an “operations needs assessment” before buying the vehicles.
In 2016, 133 Mahindra Enforcer patrols and 15 Mahindra Scorpio patrols were turned over to the PRO-6, according to Superintendent Joem Malong, regional police spokesperson.
Repairing the 21 Mahindra patrols would cost P1,040,475, according to the PRO-6 technical inspection report released yesterday.
But even repairing them was difficult, said Malong, because the needed parts were not readily available locally.
“No store sells such parts here. These must be ordered from Manila,” she said.
The technical inspection report listed the following unserviceable patrols:
* one under the Aklan Police Provincial Office (Tangalan municipal police station)
* two under the Antique Police Provincial Office (San Jose and Laua-an police stations)
* nine under the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (Balasan, Cabatuan, Estancia, Leganes, San Enrique, San Rafael, Oton, and Zarraga police stations)
* two under the Iloilo City Police Office
* six under the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office (Hinoba-an, Cauayan, Manapla, Pontevendra, Sipalay City, and Kabankalan City police stations)
COA said it interviewed police officers using the vehicles and found out that 57.20 percent or more than half of them were unsatisfied with the overall performance of the Mahindra patrols.
The most common complaint about the vehicles was their high fuel consumption, which contradicted the specifications set by the National Police Commission for them to be fuel-efficient.
COA said among the problems encountered with the vehicles were the frequent breakdowns, a poor after-sales services and a limited availability of spare parts that “impacted on its vision of a more capable, effective and credible police force.”/PN
