Ombudsman starts WB probe

An investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman is underway into the World Bank reports of possible irregularities in the first phase of the government’s $232-million rural road project.

“We are already conducting an investigation on the so-called ‘road-scam’,” Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said in a text message to The STAR.

“The information/report which we have gathered is confidential in nature. The World Bank itself requested strict confidentiality of the information given to us,” Gutierrez stressed.

She said they will be “asking the assistance of the World Bank” in the conduct of the probe.

The World Bank has shelved its planned $232-million road-building loan to the Philippines while looking into an internal report on bid-rigging by a Chinese company in collusion with local contractors during the first phase of the nationwide project.

The World Bank’s decision is said to be unusual and is the first project involving corruption issues to reach the board since Robert Zoellick became president in July, replacing Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned after an ethics scandal.

“It was more an issue of timing than anything else. The board had questions about what had been done to strengthen this project,” said World Bank spokesman Peter Stephens.

Stephens had said board members wanted to read a report into the first phase of the National Road Improvement and Management Program (NRIMP) by the World Bank’s internal investigation unit, whose findings were published on the same day phase two went for approval before the board.

The World Bank said it rejected two large road contracts, worth around $33 million, between 2003 and 2006 because of evidence of collusion and excessive pricing in three rounds of bidding by companies.     – Sandy Araneta