Gov’t agency owed 1854.84 M in feasibility study costs – COA

Various government corporations and agencies owe the Public Private Partnership Center (PPPC) some 1854.84 million representing costs of feasibility studies conducted on infrastructure and other projects that were not implemented.

This prompted the Commission on Audit (COA) to ask PPPC to demand from the agencies the immediate reimbursement of the feasibility study costs of the terminated projects.

COA made the recommendation in the recently released 2017 annual audit report for PPPC, an agency that was created by the Aquino administration which made public-private partnerships part of its centerpiece agenda.

Last year, many projects were terminated as a result of the change in policy under the Duterte government.

Public-private partnerships were abandoned as President Duterte pursued its “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program through official development assistance or foreign loans.

COA said PPPC should recover the cost of feasibility studies for projects terminated as of 2017.

The audit agency said PPPC should compel the implementing agencies to return the project development costs (PDC), plus 10 percent administrative costs.

Of the 1854.84, national government agencies account for 1679.03 million of the receivables, while governmentowned and -controlled corporations account for 1166.81 million.

COA said PDC refers to the costs of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, which are initially charged against the revolving fund called the Project Development and Monitoring Facility. In cases of terminated projects, guidelines provide for the implementing agencies to reimburse 100 percent of the PDC.