Experts urge Congress to look into gov’t-to-gov’t projects
Congress must step into the process of approving government-to-government and foreign-funded projects to ensure transparency and prevent controversies that usually involve high government officials.
Officials and experts made the proposal during a briefing on the government procurement process called by Sen. Manuel Roxas II to determine the flaws in the present system that led to government contracts such as the $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal with
University of the
Medalla is former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general while Boncodin and Diokno are former budget secretaries.
Medalla stressed no project should be exempted unless “it is fully supported by the President.”
“Now, the question is, what are the controls that are available to Congress?” Medalla asked.
He cited the need for Congress to see how the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Law could be spared from being abused.
Medalla noted some of the projects were approved, not only because loans were being made available by foreign countries, but also because of claims the projects were beneficial to the country.
Medalla suggested the ODA Law or Republic Act 8182, as amended by RA 8555, should be amended further to require projects exempted from bidding to go through the scrutiny and approval of Congress.
“Anything that does not have competition should be naturally suspect,” he pointed out.
Medalla added new realities would have to be taken into account – in particular, high foreign reserves – on how the law should define what project would be placed under the ODA.
UP Professor Raul Fabella, vice president of Procurement Watch, questioned the policy of transferring the power of approving projects from the NEDA-ICC (Investment Coordinating Committee) to government agencies.
Fabella pointed out the NEDA-ICC is in the best position to compare projects proposed by line agencies and avoid problems similar to the ZTE deal.
Medalla, for his part, stressed that NEDA should be the country’s last line of defense, along with the President, to ensure projections of high returns by line agencies of their pet projects are reviewed and scrutinized.
“Who will have a sharp pencil to say, ‘I don’t agree with your analysis?’ But if the President likes the project very much, the pencils become less sharp and the calculators become less accurate… it’s unimaginable that something (like the ZTE-NBN contract) can proceed without the active support of the President,” Medalla said.
Current NEDA deputy director general Rolando Tungpalan agreed that the need to have congressional action on projects would dispense with public bidding.
Tungpalan though refused to discuss the NBN deal in particular, saying he was under orders not to reveal the particulars of the contract.
Acting NEDA Director General Augusto Santos had invoked executive privilege, saying documents related to the NBN deal were confidential.
Roxas said the consultations brought to light several options and measures to take to strengthen the policies and processes of government procurement and the evaluation of big-ticket projects.
“We’ve seen that in contemporary history, we get into trouble when we go outside of that principle of price challenge and competitive bidding. Therefore, our solution is to find a way such that there is some sort of review if we go out of that process,” Roxas said.
“In instances such as NBN-ZTE (contract), which is outside the normal procurement process, how do we subject that to some sort of scrutiny other than what is there right now? Because what is there right now has been so clearly seen as inadequate, if not incompetent,” Roxas noted.
Roxas also pointed out the need to clarify how projects – whether funded by government money or by foreign aid – were prioritized according to national interest and not be “lender-driven,” as in the case of the NBN deal.
- Latest
- Trending
