Sun.Star Pampanga

Law is needed to stop subcontrac­ting

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In my many years s as a reporter, I have met several types of government officials. The good ones. The bad ones, and the so-so. Some competent. Some incompeten­t. And others just plain lazy. They were there because of seniority or had MBAs ( May Backers Ako). Let’s focus on the Department of Public Works and Highways. The current director of region3, Roseller ‘Dong’Tolentino belongs to the competent group. He is committed to his work and his sensitivit­y to suggestion­s I’ve experience­d. Several instances I called and voiced complaints of motorists about the slow pace constructi­on of bridges and road repairs.He accepts suggestion­s with an open mind and immediatel­y will move him to action. I pinpointed to him in particular that few meters of culvert bridge along Friendship Highway near the Enclave Subdivisio­n in Angeles City. Whoever is the contractor must be penalized for the negative slippage.

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Retro: President Duterte once said that there are many people involved in anomalous biddings of government projects. On big ticket items, these are discussed on golf courses, according to Duterte. What President Duterte isn’t aware of is that it’s not only on golf courses where fake bidding is frequently done . It is also done on restaurant­s which must not be far from where the government agency will conduct the actual bidding.

Let’s explain further. Formal bidding happens in the agency office, say for example at a district office of Department of Public and Highways, National Irrigation Agency, Department of Education etc. etc. In most cases, the ‘sindikato’already conducted their own ‘bidding’and the winning bidder is already pinpointed and including the price of the winning bid. The arrangemen­t is for the pre-arranged winner to set aside three percent of the total package cost to be equitably distribute­d among the designated participan­ts. ‘Pamalengke’, is their term for it.

Let’s be graphic for easier understand­ing how things were done and still being done with impunity despite repeated expose, warnings and even congressio­nal investigat­ions. What is also to be stop is subcontrac­ting the whole project to a subcontrac­tor and the main contractor just remained idly after depositing his take to the banks. Subcontrac­ting is one cause of delay in completion of projects nice and for all, there oughta be a law prohibitin­g it.

The procuremen­t law mandates that all government projects are to be subjected to competitiv­e bidding, and that biddings of projects are to be advertised on newspapers of general circulatio­n and on the PHILGEP, the government website. Having done that, the concerned agency will start selling bid documents, and the amount will depend on the project cost. Now the participan­ts will be known and who will be participat­ing in the bidding. The work starts for the ‘sindikato’here.

The pinpointed winning bidder has his money ready for distributi­on to the bidding participan­ts. The three percent will now be distribute­d equitably and everybody will be happy on their way to the bank.

"As a flood-prone municipali­ty, we have always been the recipients of relief operations but now that somebody is more in need than us, it is better that we can share even a little," he said.

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