A mafia consisting of Congress, DPWH, DBM, the public-works construction industry and COA has come to control the government’s infrastructure program.
The seemingly endless Congressional and Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) hearings on the flood-control projects scandal has produced a number of conclusions about the state and prospects of this country’s Philippine fiscal and budget systems.
The salient and unquestionably the most consequential conclusion is that the systems have been captured by a five-member mafia.
The first group of Mafiosi are members of the two chambers of Congress. The whole sordid process of blatantly defrauding the nation of billions – not too long ago it was millions – of taxpayer pesos has been starting with senators and members of the House of Representatives (HOR) fooling around with the National Expenditure Program (NEP) proposed to Congress by the Executive Department.
The NEP embodies infrastructure and other expenditure projects that the government’s economic planners consider to be of highest priority for the development of the national economy and the welfare of the Filipino people. All the projects included in the NEP have definite funding sources.
Since NEP projects are programmed projects with definite funding sources, the only function of the HOR and the Senate – especially the former, which is the Constitutional Keeper of the purse – in an ideal world would be to review the NEP data and assuring their integrity and rationality. But Congress is not an ideal place and no sooner have they received the NEP than the Representative start bring out their unprogrammed projects and maneuvering to inserting them into the NEP, edging out NEP’s original programmed projects.
Sound budgetary policymaking principles dictate that only clearly-funded programmed projects should be included in the NEP. Why the representatives and senators maintain a list of unprogrammed projects is obvious: unprogrammed projects, being non-NEP projects, undergo.
Unprogrammed projects can get into the NEP only thought the back door, i.e., by insertion. It is upon insertion that all the dreadfully corrupt interactions – allocations, payoffs, kickbacks etc. – between the legislators and the contractors begin to take place.
The second group of Mafiosi who have captured the government infrastructure program is the public works segment of the construction industry. The congressional and ICI hearings brought out facts that have painted public works contractors as being among the most corrupt professionals in this country.
Rig biddings, fill legislators’ and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials’ bank accounts with bribe money, implement substandard projects and fake the completion of projects- Philippine public works contractors regularly do these things, the hearings revealed. A statement to the effect that public works contractors have joined the ranks of this country’s most despised professionals would not be an exaggeration.
Needless to say, the top and middle-level officials of DPWH are another group of Mafiosi who have captured this country’s government infrastructure program. DPWH officials inform legislators of the projects in their districts that are available for insertion in the NEP and they collude with the contractors in the awarding of contracts and the rigging of biddings.
Truly, when the DPWH, the legislators and the public works contractors get together, it’s “Goodbye, honest NEP, hello corruption.”
A fourth component of the Mafia that has captured the Philippine government’s infrastructure program is the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). The congressional and ICI hearings established (1) DBM’s failure to operate as a guardrail against fraudulent claims for payment for flood-control-related projects and (2) DBM’s readiness to operate as a payment-making machine with regard to those projects. DBM’s operating as a guardrail would have involved it’s looking into the financial capacities, contractual connections and operating records of the contractors that were awarded contracts by DPWH.
Rounding off the composition of the Mafia that has captured the government’s infrastructure program is the Commission on Audit (COA), the Constitutionally-mandated auditor of the government’s financial operations.
The DBM and DPWH documents presented to the congressional investigators showed that COA auditors failed to flag flood-control projects that either were substandardly-performed or were non-existent. “Who will audit the auditors? “is a question that is increasingly being asked by the Filipino people.
A mafia consisting of Congress, DPWH, DBM, the public-works construction industry and COA has come to control the government’s infrastructure program. The Filipino people have been led by the numerous investigations to believe that the Mafia has been broken up. It hasn’t, all pious claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
The infrastructure Mafia is very much alive.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
