PCIJ WebAlert #2.2009

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W H A T ' S N E W @ www.pcij.org
2.February.2009


---------------[ i Report Special Feature )------


COLLUSION IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER?
World Bank, DPWH review same bids but draw opposite conclusions
by Roel R. Landingin

OUR latest report tackles why and how the World Bank Sanctions Board
and the Department of Public Works and Highways reached starkly
different conclusions in their separate investigations into the
alleged collusion and overpricing among contractors in the National
Road Improvement Project (NRIMP).

Authored by senior journalist PCIJ Fellow Roel R. Landingin, this
report tracks the exchange of notes between the Bank and the DPWH, and
the explanations given by the contractors, including three Philippine
companies
that had recently been barred from participating in World Bank-funded
projects.

For this story, Mr. Landingin secured copies of the World Bank
Sanctions Board’s decision — that even the Senate could not as yet
obtain — and the DPWH’s investigation report.

Read on at http://pcij.org
Post your comments at http://pcij.org/blog/?p=3476

SIDEBAR
Contractors in Congress
by Karol Anne M. Ilagan

As a sidebar to this story, PCIJ Writer-Researcher Karol Ann Ilagan
inquired into the members of the House of Representatives’s committee
on public works and highways who are themselves contractors, or have
interests or assets in the construction industry.

Last week, the committee on public works and highways — the second
largest in the House with 95 members — conducted two days of hearing
on the issue. For some unexplained reasons, senior members of the
committee promptly declared that it is the World Bank, and not the
contractors, who should be
sanctioned, and that no collusion had occurred at all.

For her story, Ms. Ilagan mined the PCIJ’s database on the Statement
of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth of the members of Congress,
from 1992, that is uploaded on our website, i-site.ph.

Read on at http://pcij.org/i-report/2009/nrimp-collusion4.html
Post your comments at http://pcij.org/blog/?p=3476


OPEN BUDGET SURVEY 2008
Philippine budget process: Less and less transparent
by the PCIJ

OUR latest report focuses on the increasing lack of transparency in
the budget and financial processes of the Philippine government, a
situation that allows citizens no opportunity to hold officials
accountable for
possible abuse, misuse and corruption of public funds.

The Philippines is considered to be the freest democracy in Southeast
Asia but ironically, it has become less an less transparent in its
budget and financial processes.

This report summarizes the findings of the Open Budget Survey 2008
that analyzed the budget processes of 85 countries. The project was
conducted by the Washington-based International Budget Partnership
(IBP) in cooperation with independent media and research agencies in
as many countries. The PCIJ authored the Philippine report.

The 2008 survey showed that the Philippines ranked only No. 34 in the
list of 85 countries, and slid three percentage points from its 51-
percent score in 2006. The Philippines was outranked by Indonesia but
came ahead of Thailand and Malaysia in the 2008 Survey.

The PCIJ report on the Philippines comes with a sidebar on budget
reform issues that have come up on the eve of the ratification by
President Arroyo of the P1.4-trillion general appropriations act for
2009.

Read on at http://www.pcij.org/i-report/2009/budget-process.html
Post your comments at http://pcij.org/blog/?p=3466

80% of governments don't account for spending

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eighty percent of the world’s governments fail to
provide adequate information for the public to hold them accountable
for managing their money, according to an extensive new report by the
International Budget Partnership (IBP).

Read on and post your comments at http://pcij.org/blog/?p=3463