For first time, ARMM opens public biddings
COTABATO CITY—President Benigno Aquino’s call for Filipinos to walk the tuwid na daan (straight and narrow path) must be really getting contagious if the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) wants to get on it, too.
Amid past allegations of fund anomalies and kickbacks involving its officials, the ARMM government has—for the first time—opened up its public bidding activities to journalists.
At stake in the series of public biddings held at the Office of the Regional Governor here since Monday were some P1.2 billion worth of government projects, mainly school-building construction, ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo said Friday.
Over 30 project contractors, most of them from Mindanao, submitted bids for the projects to be built in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
“What we did was a precedent-setting transparency program allowing all bidders, big and small to participate and compete for the lowest bid to a particular project,” Sinarimbo said. “Unlike previous administrations, we do not like that bidding of multimillion projects will be kept from the public eye.”
Questionable transactions
The Commission on Audit (COA) recently uncovered several questionable fund transactions in the ARMM from 2008 to 2009. These included some P650.9 million in procurements not subjected to public bidding, and nonimplementation of programs and projects funded out of the Special Purpose Fund worth P153.49 million.
The COA report, which came out in March, has been used as basis by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to sue suspended Governor Zaldy Ampatuan and other officials.
There have also been allegations about nonremittance of premiums to the Government Service Insurance System and a fund anomaly involving nonexistent teachers.
Published on Internet
ARMM Education Secretary Baratucal Caudang said at least 1,207 school-building projects were offered during this week’s bidding process.
He said that aside from opening up the bidding process to the public under the regional government’s transparency program, all foreign and locally funded projects were also being published on the Internet.
That would update the public on what is happening in the ARMM as far as infrastructure support is concerned, he said.
Sinarimbo said the transparency campaign had earned the approval of foreign funding agencies, including the Australian Aid for International Development (AusAid), which has approved a fresh fund of P3.5 billion for education support to the ARMM.
Permanent partners
Recently, the World Bank also approved an additional grant of $35 million to the ARMM. US, Japanese and European aid agencies also pledged to help uplift the security and social conditions of the region’s inhabitants.
“Of course, the United Nations’ humanitarian agencies, like the World Food Program, Unicef, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), among others, have been our permanent partners to peace and development, health, education and livelihood,” Sinarimbo said.
In Southern Mindanao, Davao del Norte’s public fund transparency program also earned AusAid’s admiration such that the Australian funding agency has initially released P40 million as part of its four-year annual financial assistance to the province.
Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario said the money would be used to improve public infrastructure, such as farm-to-market roads.
About 30 provinces throughout the country applied for the assistance package and Davao del Norte “was fortunate to have been chosen,” according to Del Rosario.
The aid program runs until 2014, which means that Davao del Norte will have received a total of P160 million by then. With a report from Frinston L. Lim, Inquirer Mindanao
