MANILA – A total of 58 erring contractors have been suspended for one year from participating in projects being undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for allegedly violating its bidding rules and regulations, a senior Arroyo Cabinet official announced.
DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said a special investigating committee he has created found the companies liable for violating especially the government’s procurement reform law and the implementing rules issued by the department.
But Ebdane clarified that the companies were not involved in any of the projects funded by the World Bank (WB) through a $30 million loan for the repair and improvement of major roads throughout the country.
The WB created a stir when it announced it suspended the release of the loan following its discovery of alleged bribery and collusion among the contractors in order to rig the international bidding.
In a confidential report, the WB disclosed that lawmakers and influential personalities, including lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, the husband of the President, was allegedly involved in the scandal.
The DPWH is one of the government agencies widely perceived by the public as shown in various surveys to be the most corrupt and graft-ridden, along with the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of National Defense.
According to Ebdane, the 58 affected contractors were only vying for locally-funded DPWH projects and many of them were first-time violators.
Among others, Ebdane said the erring contractors submitted proposals that were higher than the allowed approved budget cost, some had no engineering staff to prepare the bid and some cited problems like traffic jams for their failure to finish the projects awarded to them on time.
He added the contractors would not be required to pay fines as he pointed out that their suspension is enough punishment that they would not be allowed to participate in DPWH projects for one year.
Moreover, Ebdane disclosed he would also request other government agencies to also ban the 58 firms from participating in their projects.
He also said that after the one-year suspension, the affected contractors would not automatically qualify to join in any new bidding for projects to be undertaken by the department.
This developed as Ebdane urged the public to help monitor government infrastructure projects and report to the DPWH any perceived irregularities.
To achieve this, he said he ordered concerned DPWH personnel to put up billboards that not only state the nature, cost and contractors but also the contact numbers of the department’s regional and district engineering offices implementing the projects.
Ebdane assured the DPWH would address all the issues and concerns brought to their attention.
The DPWH chief also said he ordered officials and employees to finish by December this year the major projects announced by President Arroyo in her state-of-the-nation address to the joint session of Congress in July 2008.
About 85 percent of the projects have been completed, including the construction, rehabilitation and widening of more than 2,000 kilometers of national roads throughout the country, according to Ebdane.
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