DPWH chief assures senators of anti-corruption efforts

MANILA, Philippines — Secretary Rogelio Singson of the Department of Public Works and Highways has assured senators that appropriate measures were being implemented by his office to reduce if not eradicate corruption in carrying out its projects.

DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

“I’ve been very focused in terms of implementing anti-corruption efforts and one of these would be to make that our projects are bidded properly,” Singson said during Monday’s hearing of the Senate finance committee.

To avoid corruption, he said the agency made sure that the projects, costs and quality were right.

“Andun po yung leakage sa tatlo[The leakage is among the three] ,” he told the committee.

Right project, he said, meant having a “very objective of selecting projects that can assure that we don’t squander resources.”

“If any congressman or politician come to me and tell me that they want a particular road, I have with me on my IPAD the exact road sections in the congressional districts, ano po ang kondisyon ng kalye. So that hindi na pwedeng bolahin,” he said.

The best guarantee for the right cost, on the other hand, Singson said was “competetive and transparent bidding.”

“Reduce the overhead. Dati po ang overhead ng mga projects ng [Before, the overhead of the projects of] public works ay [was]40 percent. We’ve reduced it to as low as 15 percent for the big tickets up to 25 percent for the smaller projects,” he said.