Collusion seen in over P100M in projects, bidding stopped

THE DEPARTMENT of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has stopped the bidding for roads projects worth over P100 million in the Mimaropa region due to alleged collusion among bidders, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said on Thursday.

Singson said he also ordered suspended all the other bidding processes in an entire district in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) due to the alleged collusion of bidders in six road projects.

“We just suspended the bidding in one whole district because I don’t believe, we don’t believe, that there was no collusion,” Singson said.

“The differences between the bids were small so it was really suspicious. In our other bids nationwide, the difference varies from five to 15 percent from agency estimate. But in this particular district, the bids were almost the same,” he added.

Singson declined to give further details about the road projects pending the results of the DPWH investigation.

“Let me go to the investigation and I’ll proceed from there. We continue to make sure that we run after corrupt officials of the department,” he added.

Singson said that he had also trimmed down the ranks of top DPWH officials to improve efficiency in the department.

“We had 16 regional directors but only 10 were given assignments. Out of the six that were not given assignments, three left and three are on the watch list,” Singson said.

Singson said that the department had 32 assistant regional directors but this number was reduced to just 16.

“So, this means having two assistant regional directors per regional office would no longer be allowed,” Singson said.

The DPWH earlier said that it was able to save P577 million in public funds during the last six months of 2010 after doing away with negotiated projects.

Singson said the government saved P577.76 million after 29 infrastructure projects were publicly bid out at the DPWH central office from July to December 2010.

“The amount of more than half a billion in government funds is just for 29 projects in the central office. We expect to generate much more savings from the bidding of all DPWH projects nationwide,” Singson said.