DBM orders documents on textbook bidding to be made public

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. ordered yesterday a government bidding committee to make public all documents related to the procurement of textbooks under a World Bank-funded contract.

"Every document pertaining to the transactions must be made available," he said. "The best way to shed light on the issue is not to hide anything. We should adopt a sunshine policy on this matter."

In issuing the order through the Procurement Service (PS), Andaya said the Inter-Agency Bids and Awards Committee (IABAC) must disclose documents of past public biddings of textbooks and instructional materials, from 1999 to the present.

The PS, an attached agency of the budget department, has to divulge the bid documents, including the scope, and terms of reference of the procurement as approved by the WB, which lent money to the Philippine government for the procurement, he added.

The names of private sector representatives and civil society groups that were present during the submission of bids should also be disclosed, he added.

Andaya said the textbook procurement project was funded, monitored and approved by the World Bank.

"The bank was involved every step of the way," he said. "We even used the standard WB bid documents, which run up (to) more than 200 pages.

"Every decision by the IABAC was subject to World Bank review and approval. Its conformity in every aspect of the bidding process has to be secured. The bank was the Big Brother watching."

Andaya ordered the PS to furnish those concerned with the "No Objection" letters from the WB on matters referred to it by the IABAC.

"The evaluation of the content of the books was done by experts and academics and the DBM had no hand in it. It was their findings, which guided decisions on what bids to consider," he said.

Andaya also instructed the PS to divulge minutes of the meetings of the IABAC and the results of the evaluation made by the Instructional Materials Corp., a DepEd agency, on the content of the textbooks submitted by the publishing houses that joined the bidding.

Procurement reform laws and systems have brought down the price of public school textbooks from P100 to an average P40 each, he added.

The IABAC is comprised of representatives of the finance, budget, education, and trade and industry departments.