The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Weng C. Ocfemia
Party list Rep. Juan R. Revilla has asked the House committees on public works and highways and good government and public accountability to investigate how a Spanish contractor allegedly involved in a number of rigged bids and anomalous transactions in Spain, the United States and Mexico was allowed to participate in the implementation of government projects.
House Resolution 2490, questioned the alleged anomalous bidding of the multi-billion-peso Central Luzon Expressway (Clex) of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the New National Prisons Project in Nueva Ecija of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Revilla wanted the House to call all the concerned parties in a hearing to shed light on why the Obrascon Huerte Lain SA (OHL), a Spanish construction company that has a “questionable” track record, will bid for the two projects.
In a statement, Revilla said the company has been involved in various rigged bids and questionable transactions in Spain, United States and Mexico.
He added the company had a long history of anomalous transactions and unethical practices involving big-ticket, high-impact infrastructure projects, like the bribery of Spanish and Mexican officials resulting in the resignation of the treasurer of the Spanish ruling party, Partido Popular.
“There were also reports that this company has been involved in other anomalous transactions like the termination of a number of multimillion-dollar projects in Mexico, including its reported exaggerated costing and spending for the Mexican toll road project, Cicuito Exterior Mexiquense, defrauding investors and the government of 20 billion Mexican pesos,” Revilla disclosed.
“It is very possible that, given the highly questionable record, OHL will be exporting this kind of malpractice and odious behavior to the Philippines, which may jeopardize our infrastructure development program, put the country in disrepute before the international community and ruin the entire construction industry,” Revilla said.
Revilla said the documented information may have eluded the DPWH and DOJ BACs which, despite concerns raised by concerned quarters, proceeded to pre-qualify OHL, presumably on the basis of its misrepresentations about its financial and technical ability to undertake the projects, and an opaque submission of historical performance in similar undertakings abroad.
Revilla said there is a need to conduct an investigation the soonest time possible to avoid the possibility of government and the Japanese funding agency, JBIC, in the case of the Clex Project and in the case of the National Prisons Project which is listed under the Private Public Partnership program (PPP).
“Engaging the services of a decidedly unscrupulous and historically problematic operator should be disallowed and perhaps more important, ensure that our contracting and project development rules and operations are in accord with internationally accepted standards and good governance,” Revilla said.
The P29.14-billion Clex project will connect the Subic-Clark-Tarlac and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressways to Cabanatuan City
The project involves the construction of a 30.7-kilometer four-lane road that will deviate from the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) some 2.5 kilometers north of the Luisita Interchange and cross Central Luzon all the way to Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said his office aims to increase infrastructure spending by 2016. He said the government has set its sights on spending 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, totalling to as high as $18 billion by 2016, from $4 billion in 2011.
“We commit that by 2016, all national roads and bridges, estimated to measure 32,000 km, will have been paved,” he said.