Banned contractors bag DPWH contracts
Credit to Author: William B. Depasupil| Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2019 16:11:32 +0000
THE Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has uncovered a scheme that enables suspended or blacklisted contractors to join public biddings at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna on Sunday said under the illegal scheme, banned contractors bag deals by using the license of contractors of good standing for a fee or a percentage cut in the work contract.
“As of late, my office, not the en banc of the PACC, has received reports backed up by documents and expert opinion about a scheme wherein some flagged and even blacklisted contractors borrow or use the licenses of good performing contractors for a fee or royalty to be able to participate in the biddings for civil work projects,” Luna said.
He claimed that the scheme was prevalent in district engineering offices across the country and involves projects at the municipal or city level.
“The project amount may not be that much but still it is in the millions of pesos, and becomes bigger if the contracts are cornered by a favored contractor,” Luna told The Manila Times.
Luna expressed belief that some DPWH insiders such as engineers and members of the bids and awards committee know of the scheme.
“This may not be happening only in district engineering offices of the DPWH but also in other line agencies implementing infrastructure projects,” he said.
“I suggest that district engineers do further due diligence before awarding any contracts for civil works to protect public interest. Infrastructure projects resulting from the scheme are usually substandard or of low quality, and not disaster resilient,” the PACC official added.
Luna said he would recommend that PACC officials meet with Public Works Secretary Mark Villar to discuss the matter. The two agencies, he said, could conduct joint operations to nail the scheming contractors and their co-conspirators.
“I know that the good secretary will never tolerate such practice; in fact, he has been implementing various reforms in his department to curb corruption, and is even blacklisting non-performing or scheming contractors, and firing corrupt and under-performing district engineers and other DPWH officials,” he added.
The PACC last year named the DPWH as the most corrupt department.
Villar vowed to act on all the complaints and called on the public to report to him directly through his hotline (165-02).
He said the DPWH has started using the Project and Contract Management Application, an enterprise-wide application, with a centralized dat base, that allows not only “real-time” updating in the field but also accelerated analysis and problem resolution at the project/contract level, and full analytics at the construction program level.
Villar explained that the shift to the new system has allowed DPWH better access to information to aggressively investigate and blacklist erring contractors.
The DPWH chief earlier implemented a three-strike policy under which erring contractors are warned for the first offense, suspended for the second offense and blacklisted for the third offense.
Villar vowed to implement measures to stop incompetent and unqualified contractors from participating in public biddings.
He admitted that some fly-by-night contractors were using the licenses of big contractor firms through the help of some influential personalities to bag big contracts that they were not capable of doing.
“We will be strict on accreditation. We won’t allow those using the license of other contractors. We will be strict on equipment and we will also check their financial capability,” Villar said. “So right from the start, all those that have no capability cannot participate.”
“We will also evaluate the performance of accredited contractors. We will suspend and ban those who repetitively violate the rules, but we will also encourage and support the performers,” he added.
Under his watch, Villar said work on all public works projects should be on a 24/7 basis.