The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said there is a need to create a new Comprehensive and Integrated Infrastructure Program (CIIP) for the Duterte administration.
Neda Assistant Secretary Ruben S. Reinoso Jr. told the BusinessMirror that this will allow the government to monitor whether the government’s infrastructure targets are being met.
Reinoso said these will be included in the next meeting of the interagency committee Infrastructure Committee (Infracom) alongside approvals of the Three-Year Rolling Infrastructure Program (TRIP) and the Core Investment Program (CIP).
“We will still go for a CIIP. We need to because the CIP and the TRIP does not cover the entire infrastructure investment. Otherwise, we will not be painting the correct picture,” Reinoso said.
The CIIP is a consolidated list of all infrastructure programs of the government including Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans, General Appropriations Act (GAA), corporate budget, PPPs/JVs, and those funded purely by the private sector.
Based on the CIIP 2013-2016 the priority programs and projects for the infrastructure sector comprises a total of 3,077 projects with total investment requirements amounting to about P6.58 trillion.
Neda officials also said there is a need to speed up infrastructure project implementation. They said the agency is prepared to cut the approval validity of infrastructure projects.
If government line agencies do not speed up various infrastructure projects, the Neda said it is prepared to cut the approval validity of these projects. In a briefing on Thursday, Neda Deputy Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan said the validity of the Investment Coordination Committee’s (ICC) approval for projects is 18 months.
However, if agencies fail to implement projects immediately or at least within a year after ICC approval, the Neda could revise its approval validity policy for all infrastructure projects.
“We can’t afford any further delay. As you are aware we have an 18-month expiry of ICC approval so we are serious that we can shorten that so that people are compelled to act more expeditiously,” Tungpalan said.
Tungpalan said the Neda has already made changes to the ICC process that could further facilitate the evaluation and approval of various projects.
These changes include the laws pertaining to right-of-way acquisitions and the law that will allow the country to conduct diggings and tunnels for subterranean infrastructure.
The Neda is also banking on the approval of the emergency powers for the President that will allow the Department of Transportation to fast- track its transportation projects and other functions.
“We don’t want a repeat of previous Neda Board approvals that were not implemented,” Tungpalan said. “We will hold government agencies accountable because we committed to speed up the approval process at the same time we hold them accountable for implementation.”
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said speeding up project implementation would be easier if the President were involved.
In the next Neda Board meeting, which is chaired by the President, Pernia said the Neda Secretariat will present a list of projects that have already been approved.
To date, Tungpalan said only four projects are ongoing and three are slated to begin, out of the 17 projects recently approved by the Neda Board.
“In the next Neda Board meeting we will give the President a status report of where all these approved projects are so that he will show his impatience and tell the implementing line agencies to move faster,” Pernia said.
The Neda Board is the country’s premier social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body. The Board is composed of the President as chairman and Pernia as vice-chairman.
