When Monitoring Fails

But he needs to know just exactly what these committees found problematic in each region of the country as it has been supposedly been doing all this time and all these years. He should ask about what these committees have accomplished. Do they have anything to show in terms of being able to identify ghost projects? Or projects implemented with faulty design, bloated budgets, and implemented using substandard materials. Why was the RPMC of Central Luzon, which covers Bulacan, unable to detect the ghost projects? They could not be detected by the RPMC radar. Stealth features I suppose.

These are features in the projects that the President recently exposed to the nation.

If these committees have never done anything of the sort he expects to happen then resorting to the RPMCs will be an exercise in futility. It will only delay the determination of the truth, if at all.

The RPMCS do not have the power to compel the delivery of documents much less to examine them. It relies on the reports of government agencies and few government units will tell the RPMCs the real story or what happens in the confines of their offices or in the deliberations in the Bidding Committees many of which are not bidding but are negotiating and as Sen. Lacson said - are determining the percentage allocation of the budget for specific persons involved in the projects.

Although in one case, that of the Tacloban Airport Development Project, the implementing agency, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) reported a 27 percent negative slippage. However, even if this was the sad performance of the contractor, the contract on this project was not terminated even if inter-agency Infrastructure rules called for it.

This situation persisted for months. It led the committee through the motion of the private sector members to urge the CAAP to terminate the contract. The RDC Executive Committee simply forwarded the RPMC Resolution to the CAAP without saying whether it agreed to the Resolution or not.

Is this the kind of action our President would want in the case of the ghost infrastructure projects and those which are obviously overpriced and implemented with design flaws and substandard materials?

To be effective, the RPMC of the Regional Development Councils must be given more powers and its private sector membership increased. And to somehow shield the committee from criticism that it always rules in favor of contractors, it should be revamped to be led by a capable and unbiased Private Sectort Representative and with a majority of the committee members coming from the private sector (including the church) from within and outside the RDC.

The linkage of the RPMC with the Commission on Audit and the Ombudsman must be formalized in black and white such as in an Executive Order, and not left to the discretion of the government officials in the committee.

A meeting with the COA and Ombudsman representatives was held but nothing came our of it in terms of results affecting the proper implementation of projects. The reason being, it seems, is that the RPMC is not tasked to carry out this linkage with the COA and the Ombudsman.

A prudent thing to do is for the President’s staff to ask Private Sector Representatives from all over the country, such as through a survey, for suggestions about this and not only rely on the recommendations of government agencies in the RDC and RPMC.

If PBBM can institutionalize these improvements, back it up with funds for travelling around to inspect the many projects in the region then have the RPMC assisted by a competent and independent corps of engineers and accountants, he will produce results that will satisfy the craving of the people.

Thus, even when monitoring fails, this failure can be turned into a blessing that will lead to better monitoring and less spillage of government funds.

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