The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP)-Philippine Domestic Construction Board (PDCB) on their partnership for the Constructors Performance Evaluation System (CPES).
CPES is a system of rating the performance of constructors based on specific criteria set by the Infrastructure Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority to ensure the quality and timely delivery of infrastructure projects. CPES is expected to raise the level of performance of Philippine constructors to be at par with internationally accepted standards and applies to all public infrastructure projects in the Philippines.
Under the “Government Procurement Reform Act”, all national government offices, departments, bureaus, offices, or instrumentalities of the Government, including Government-owned and/or Controlled Corporations, Government Financial Institutions, State Universities and Colleges and Local Government Units are mandated to evaluate the performance of their constructors using CPES.
The signing of the MOA forges PICE’s firm commitment towards “transparency and quality” in the constructed projects and is in line with four themes in the PICE Road Map 2025: service to members, upgrading of the profession, awareness of the public to their capabilities and service to the community.
Under the MOA, PICE will organize CPES Accreditation Seminars and will open this to both PICE members and non-members who meet the minimum qualification (i.e., licensed engineer or architect with at least 5 years of relevant work experience in project implementation). Upon accreditation by the
CIAP-Philippine Domestic Construction Board (PDCB), they shall form part of PICE’s pool of CPES Evaluators that can be tapped by Government agencies implementing public infrastructure projects as “third-party evaluators”.
This partnership between PICE and the CIAP-PDCB is very timely as it complements the Government’s agenda to accelerate infrastructure projects that will be rolled out simultaneously in all regions beginning next year.
According to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, the Government will spend about P890.9 billion for infrastructure across the country next year.
Diokno also sees the next 6 years as the golden age of Philippine construction.
For a more inclusive and sustainable growth, de Castro also envisions expanding the coverage of CPES to eventually include PPP and private sector projects. The first PICE-organized 3-day CPES Accreditation Seminar will be held 25-27 October 2016 at the PICE National Headquarters in Quezon City.
PICE is the only accredited professional association of all civil engineers in the Philippines with over 78,000 registered members spread across 97 chapters nationwide and 10 overseas chapters. PICE also has about 65,000 student members in 187 student chapters nationwide.
PDCB is one of the implementing boards of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines and is tasked to oversee the implementation by all procuring entities implementing public infrastructure projects of CPES.