Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Friday pressed his attack on Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno as he questioned the P100 billion payables that the legislator said he found in the Public Works department’s contracts in its 2018 projects.
“Concerned DBM and DPWH employees have intimated to me that the total amount of unpaid contracts for 2018 infrastructure projects have risen from P44 billion last November to more than P100 billion at the end of the year,” Andaya said.
“These are the DBM’s payables to government contractors that ballooned to P100 billion at the end of the year. Up to now, the DBM has not paid a substantial part of these debts.”
Andaya, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and a former budget secretary, said the payables had reincarnated an old system that forced DPWH contractors to cough up kickbacks just to be paid for completed infrastructure projects.
Andaya said the release of payments from the DBM to the DPWH varied per engineering district. Some districts were paid only 10 percent, others 30 percent.
“Notices of Cash Allocation are given in lump sum. No breakdown. Discretion is given to Regional Directors. Since it’s insufficient, contractors have to resort to bribery just to get paid. What’s worse, DPWH casuals were not paid their salaries for three months,” Andaya said.
He cited reports that “99 percent of the contractors are still not paid fully for the completed projects. DBM only released partial payments. Ten months to pay, just like paying for credit card installments.
“in short, the DBM has resorted to rationing of payments. If there was a rice shortage before, now there is cash shortage thanks to Secretary Diokno. This is one of the reasons why we are questioning his decision to adopt a cash-based budget system for 2019. Why insist on cash-based budgeting when you have billions of pesos in payables for 2018?
“These payables are incurring interest expense. Banks are already demanding payment from government contractors, who face foreclosure of their properties. Contractors are already in default of their obligations.
“How can we convince legitimate contractors to continue bidding for infrastructure projects if we cannot pay them on time? A contractors’ revolt is possible. The Build, Build, Build Program may turn out to be Stop, Stop, Stop Program, courtesy of Secretary Diokno. Given this scenario, an economic slowdown is imminent.”
