Study cites strides, hurdles to contracting transparency

TRANSPARENCY is essential in the implementation of the Duterte administration’s P8-trillion “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.

Expected higher tax collections because of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) makes transparency and judicious spending even more imperative given that the bulk of the additional revenues from the increased tax rates s intended to fund the massive infrastructure pro

By being open in all transactions from the planning to implementation stage of each of the thousands of projects involved in the Build, Build, Build program, the Duterte administration could prove that its anti-corruption campaign is not mere rhetoric.

Last Thursday, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) presented the results of its case study on the procurement of infrastructure projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The study, titled “Public Contract- ing in the Philippines: Breakthroughs and Barriers,” listed major improvements and challenges in accessing information on government contracts.

The DPWH is the lead agency in implementing Build, Build, Build which is touted to usher in the “golden age of infrastructure” with an estimated P8 trillion in public and private spending until 2022, when Duterte’s six-year term ends.

Duterte’s issuance of Executive Order No. 2 on July 23, 2016 was a much-lauded move and a step in the right direction in pursuit of his campaign promise of change in corruption in the bureaucracy. It laid down a policy of full public disclosure and transparency in public service to promote accountability, and set the guidelines for requesting and releasing executive branch.

However, subsequent issuances providing exceptions to transparency and administrative penalties raised questions on the administration’s sincerity and commitment to ensure greater transparency.

In 2016, the Philippines ranked 101st with a rating of 35 out of 100 percent in the anti-corruption index of Transparency International, the global civil society organization monitoring 176 countries in the - pines was lumped with lower-ranked countries in the index, countries that are plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like the police and judiciary.

TI’s report said these were countries “where anti-corruption laws are on the books, (but) in practice they’re often skirted or ignored” and where “people frequently face situations of bribery and extortion, rely on basic services that have been undermined by the misappropriation of funds, and seeking redress from authorities that are on the take.”

On the other end, the higherranked countries “tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity judicial systems,” the report said.

The country’s ranking in the TI corruption index implies that honesty and openness in government transactions is far from being accepted. Transparency and accountability are generally considered the two main pillars of good corporate governance.

In the PCIJ study, topping the list of barriers to open contracting in infrastructure projects of the government was that agencies do not