Incoming finance secretary Carlos Dominguez said Monday the new government will review the construction of a new office building for the Department of Finance within the compound of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
Outgoing Finance chief Cesar Purisima earmarked P4.5 billion for the 20-story building project. Undersecretary Gil Beltran said the department had awarded the design contract to the architectural company of Felino Palafox Jr.
Scheduled for completion in two years, the project has a multi-year obligational authority from the Department of Budget and Management—an assurance of fund availability on succeeding budgets of the government.
Dominguez said the new office was “an example of skewed priorities when a lot of Yolanda survivors still don’t have a roof over their heads.”
He said the next administration would likely review the project before the bidding for construction started.
Dominguez is also against the construction of another new building for the National Economic and Development Authority, which has been allotted P20 million to cover its design and engineering study.
A MYOA has also been issued for the new central office of Neda, also in the Ortigas financial district. Budget said the P2.68-billion building would be built from 2017 to 2020.
“The proposed project… is the construction of a modern 15-story office building that will house some 999 employees of the Neda central office as well as attached agencies…,” Budget said in a statement.
Neda oversees the Public-Private Partnership Center, Tariff Commission and the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency.
Funds for construction amounting to P573.9 million will be allocated beginning 2017. The funding will increase to P592.9 million in 2018, P747.7 million in 2019 and P769.4 million in 2020. The current Neda central office is located in Ortigas in Pasig City.
Dominguez earlier opposed the merger of two of the country’s state-run banks.
He said the merger of the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines would likely not push through under President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
Hesaid “the GCG’s bid and awards committee for the procurement of advisor was well aware the next administration may have different priorities, but tried to complete the bidding for advisors right before the elections.”
Upon the recommendation of the Governance Commission on GOCCs, President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order 198 in “ªFeberuary consolidating”¬ the two state-owned banks, with Landbank as the surviving entity.
The merged bank will be the country’s second largest in terms of assets and deposits.The GCG since 2013 has been advocating the DBP-LandBank merger.
Leaders of the two Congressional chambers had opposing views when the consolidation was announced in February.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the merger “should not have been done just like that.”
“We’ve been talking about this merger for quite some time so this EO came as a surprise to us,” he said.
Dominguez said he was “not honoring or dishonoring” the merger. “I’m just saying I don’t think it can be done without legislation.”