There’s at least P3 million worth of overstocked office supplies in the Senate since last year. This includes tissue paper, insecticide spray, and assorted office items.

I could already hear the elders’ “a lot of people don’t even eat thrice a day” argument in my head.

According to the annual report of the Commission on Audit (COA) released last July 1, the upper house’s inventory has a total of 20,856 tissue paper rolls, P518,335.77 worth of toner and ink cartridges, markers worth P206,336.38, and batteries worth P152,058.17. A lot more than what they actually need.

nolisoli be fixture senate too many tissue — *Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com*

But this isn’t how inventories either in public or private institutions should be done.

COA recommended planning and periodic assessment to avoid this lavishness. They wrote, “Wastage of government assets from overstocking and obsolescence of inventories could have been prevented had procurement of supplies and materials have been properly planned and periodic assessment of inventory movements been undertaken to ascertain the required quantity of items for stocking.”

Reprehension of the culprit

As the Senate shouldn’t tolerate or ignore nonsense such as this overstocking, Senator Panfilo Lacson affirmed that he will hold the culprits administratively and criminally by “making proper recommendation to the Ombudsman or DOJ (Department of Justice) to file the appropriate criminal charges against those responsible.”

“I will definitely conduct an investigation on the alleged anomalies using the COA report as basis of the same,” Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Accounts, said in a text message to reporters according to Inquirer.net.

Header image courtesy of Inquirer.net