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THE
Philippines needs to push for the improvement and,
consequently, international acceptance of its own
country systems in order for the country to cover
significant ground in achieving its commitments to the
Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
National
Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Deputy
Director General Rolando Tungpalan said there are two
main areas where the Philippines needs to improve on and
that is in subjecting all official development
assistance (ODA)-funded projects to international
competitive bidding and in untying aid.
In an
interview, Tungpalan said these two areas can both be
addressed if the country further pushes for the use of
its own country system rules in negotiating for ODA
projects.
The Neda
official said there is a reluctance on the part of the
international community to use the country’s current
system on subjecting locally funded projects to
competitive bidding since under the Philippine rules, no
bidder will be awarded a project if the bid will exceed
the approved contract cost of the government.
Tungpalan said the approved contract costs of projects
are considered the ceiling cost for all projects. In
order to win a project, bidders must match the cost or
bid below the cost of the project.
However,
in international competitive bidding, all bids,
regardless of the cost, have a chance to win a project.
Tungpalan said as long as the bidder presents a
qualified and responsive bid, even if it will exceed the
approved contract cost, can win a project.
Nonetheless, Tungpalan said these issues may be resolved
once the Implementing Rules and Regulations-B (IRR-B) of
the country’s procurement law has been completed. The
IRR-B will focus on ODA-funded projects, while the
current IRR, termed IRR-A, focuses on locally funded
projects.
Meanwhile, the second area of concern for the
Philippines is how to push for its own country systems
in untying aid. Tied aid is common among bilateral loans
and grants where donors automatically have the right to
appoint a contractor for a certain project.
An
example of a bilateral loan-funded project is the $329
million worth National Broadband Network, which was
proposed to be funded by the Chinese government. The
Chinese government was the one who chose ZTE as the
contractor for the said broadband project.
Tungpalan said the only solution that can be done to
resolve this is by subjecting all projects, even
bilateral loan or grant-funded projects, to competitive
international bidding. This, however, is still one of
the things that the government needs to push for.
“Where
aid is tied, there should be international competitive
bidding. [Donors expressed] openness to this but we need
to push this further,” Tungpalan said.
On the
other hand, citing survey results, Neda Project
Monitoring Staff Director Roderick Planta said that
apart from Tungpalan’s recommendations, there is also a
need for donors to become more open to
suggestions/recommendations of the Philippine government
in the evaluation of projects.
Planta
said a survey on aid effectiveness showed that, often,
the comments of the Philippine government are not
reflected on the evaluation of donor-agencies. This, he
said, may be rooted on headquarter policies implemented
by donors. |
