The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said it will publish all its ongoing and proposed irrigation projects for 2017 in line with the agency’s efforts to promote transparency.
NIA Administrator Peter Tiu Laviña said he has ordered central, regional and project offices of the agency to make a list of the ongoing and proposed irrigation projects.
Laviña added that this is part of the Duterte administration’s thrust to inform the public about the current initiatives of the NIA, which is attached to the Office of the President.
“I would like to make available to the public the lists of projects in their areas of jurisdiction,” he said in a statement.
Laviña added that this transparency effort is in support of the current government’s aim to “regain the trust and confidence of the public”.
“This will help promote open and transparent governance and, likewise, dispel speculations that NIA is keeping the list to favor certain contractors,” he said.
The NIA chief also directed all regional managers to post all the irrigation projects for bidding on Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System and encourage more contractors to join project/s bidding.
The agency’s budget has seen increases in recent years owing to the government’s bid to achieve rice self-sufficiency and wipe out imports.
NIA’s budget had breached the P20-billion mark during the term of former President Benigno S. Aquino III. For this year, the agency’s total budget reached more than P38 billion, including the P2.3-billion additional allocation for free irrigation.
Former officials of the Department of Agriculture had pushed for an expansion in irrigated areas in the country to enable farmers to produce more paddy rice.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), paddy-rice output in the January-to-June period could reach 8.54 million metric tons (MMT), 11.68 percent higher than the 7.65 MMT recorded a year ago.
The PSA said natural calamities, such as strong typhoons, caused rice farmers to incur losses last year. Its data showed that 2016 production settled at 17.63 MMT, 2.88 percent lower than the 18.15 MMT recorded in 2015.