DOLE junks ‘midnight deal’ made by POLO in Hong Kong

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has ordered the cancelation of the “midnight deal” entered into by labor officials in Hong Kong and a supplier of an online system used to provide services to overseas Filipino workers there.

The came after a fact-finding team presented the findings of its probe of the alleged irregularities in the procurement of the database service for OFWs at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Hong Kong.

Undersecretary Claro Arellano, head of the fact-finding team, said Wednesday that the previous database system used by the labor office in Hong Kong, entered into in 2009 and provided by Employeasy Limited, had no authorization from the labor secretary.

Claro said that there were also no documents supporting the public bidding conducted to replace the expired contract of Employeasy Limited with the supposed new service provider Polaris Tools.

Bello earlier ordered a probe of officials in POLO in Hong Kong for their “haste” in replacing its online service provider.

The labor department said that POLO officials in Hong Kong terminated the service agreement with EmployEasy Ltd. now Employeasy Group Ltd. on Dec. 5, 2018, and became effective Dec. 30, 2018.

DOLE noted that a copy of the contract for the new system was signed last March 7 with the signatories including Labor Attaché Dela Torre and Polaris Tools Ltd., represented by Jaime Deverall, chief executive officer, and one Lindsay Ernst.

Bello has ordered the formal probe of former Hong Kong Labor Attaché Jalilo de la Torre to see if he had any administrative or criminal liability.

/atm