THE Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) is amenable to the creation of an official ‘blacklist’ of firms found to have committed integrity violations when it comes to projects they implemented with the government.
In a briefing on Monday, DepDev Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said this is something that can be put in place in light of the recent controversies surrounding the flood control projects.
‘Yeah. I think that the public, being aware of what is a good partner and a bad partner, should be part of the accountability mechanism that will need to be put in place,’ Balisacan said.
Budget and Management Assistant Secretary Romeo Matthew T. Balanquit said the new government procurement act can also help in this regard.
Balanquit said under the new law, companies participating in biddings are required full disclosure when it comes to all procurement data and documents, including beneficial ownership.
‘I think this would be a very good way of not only deterring these possible incidents happening again in the future, but also the appropriate penalty that can be also imposed on those people who make these anti-competitive practices,’ Balanquit said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Development (ED) Council said other efforts include the revision of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) guidelines, the first time it was revised in 10 years.
Balisacan said the revision includes raising the ICC threshold to P5 billion from P2.5 billion. He told BusinessMirror last month that this was being done due to inflation.
Apart from these, the ICC’s coverage now includes Public-Private Partnership projects.
Further, the ICC will now conduct mandatory review of all foreign loan-assisted projects regardless of loan amount or total cost, excluding grant-assisted projects that are reviewed by DepDev.
Balisacan said these changes aim to streamline the ICC process and make project evaluation more rigorous, minimizing delays.
The Country’s Chief Economist also said this is being done alongside safeguards placed on various stages of the approval process to prevent problems that may arise when it comes to projects.
He added the new guidelines has also placed value on project monitoring and evaluation, which needs to be embedded in all projects.
‘We need to embed impact evaluation and monitoring evaluation in excellent projects because that will not only improve our learnings on what works and what does not, but also potentially save us from costly mistakes,’ Balisacan said.
Meanwhile, Department of Finance Undersecretary Joven Balbosa also stressed that efforts to improve governance in projects can also take a cue from the country’s development partners.
He said lessons on project preparation, project implementation, execution, and monitoring and evaluation can be included in new project proposals.
Balbosa also said including intermittent reviews throughout the project cycle can help ensure quality of project delivery while keeping projects on track to completion.
‘On the procurement process, our multilateral partners especially, we work with them on international competitive bidding, open bid,’ Balbosa said.
‘Two steps. First to look at the quality of the project bid or the proposals before you even go to the price part. So it is important, again, to learn from the analysis on the quality or the design that is being proposed,’ he added.
The ICC consists of the Secretary of Finance, as chairman; the DEPDev Secretary, as cochairman; and the Executive Secretary, the Secretaries of Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Budget and Management and the Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines, as members.
The committee, one of seven interagency committees of the ED Council, evaluates the fiscal, monetary and balance of payments implications of major national projects, and recommends to the President the timetable of their implementation on a regular basis.
It also advises the President on matters related to the domestic and foreign borrowings program and submits a status of the fiscal, monetary and balance of payments implications of major national projects.