AS part of its ongoing crusade to end systemic corruption in public works, the Marcos administration will be tapping new smart technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), to boost transparency and uncover irregularities.
President Marcos made the announcement in a news conference in Malacañang on Thursday, when he presented the developments in the government’s campaign against allegedly anomalous flood-control projects.
During his presentation, Marcos highlighted how the initiative resulted in the vetting of 9,855 flood control projects to determine if they were substandard, overpriced, or non-existent.
Of the said projects, 735 were non-existent or unlocatable, 84 were non-operational, and 191 were ineffective.
It also resulted in the reorganization with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the creation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to facilitate the investigation of those involved in the said irregularities.
The investigation has resulted in the filing of charges against 37 individuals, including lawmakers, former DPWH officials, and contractors.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has frozen P6.3 billion worth of assets of parties suspected of involvement in the flood-control project corruption.
Marcos said he is determined to institutionalize the said reforms by using new technology to make public works-related processes more accessible to the public through a transparency portal, which will feature details on the contractor, location and status of the said projects.
‘We will monitor every step of this process carefully so that if we see something that is not right or against the rules and regulations, we will see it immediately and it will not be exposed only after two, three years like what is happening now,’ he said in Filipino.
The President said they will also tap smart technologies to help in screening of public works contracts and structural integrity of the said projects.
‘We have smart technology to check what the standard really is, if the construction is good. This is checking if the rebar is really being put in, if the concrete is really-if the cement is really thick, if the cement is to the right specification,’ Marcos said.
‘The other smart technology that we will use, the one I mentioned, will look at the contract process so that if we see something that is not right, we will see it immediately. We will list it, we will see it, we will go back and investigate why it happened that way,’ he added.