MANILA, Philippines — Public Works Secretary Vivencio Dizon has issued new budget guidelines for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), starting with a new policy on proposed budgets for project consultants.
In an order issued Sept. 22, Dizon outlined guidelines on the preparation, review and updating of Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) for consulting services under locally funded and foreign-assisted projects of the agency.
Under Department Order No. 184, Dizon said the ABC will now strictly serve as the ceiling for bid prices in locally funded consulting projects. Any offer that goes beyond the ABC will be disqualified outright.
For foreign-assisted projects, the ABC is referred to as the estimated project cost. The agency said EPCs must follow the rules of donor or lending institutions, but stressed that no increase beyond the approved loan or grant amount may proceed without clearance from oversight agencies such as the Department of Budget and Management or the Department of Economy, Planning and Development.
Compared to earlier rules, the new order imposes tighter controls by mandating documented market scoping, automatic disqualification of bids above the ceiling and higher-level approvals for any cost adjustments in foreign-assisted projects.
Previous rules introduced during the time of former DPWH secretary and now Sen. Mark Villar had set a “management fee” as the ABC for the project consultancy contract which took into consideration the actual cost of services to be rendered by the consultant. This called for the computation of a remuneration cost, overhead cost, a “social charge” and the “management fee” as well as a multiplier formula, not counting a “contingency” fund.
The new guidelines also direct the DPWH Bureau of Design to validate all ABC packages and issue updated costing guidelines annually to reflect changes in law, funding rules or market conditions.
The new rules take effect immediately and supersede Department Order No. 99, Series of 2018.
Dizon had previously ordered the lifting of the suspension on procurement activities for all locally funded infrastructure projects, but had imposed interim guidelines for strict disclosure rules on the part of prospective bidders as well as the livestreaming of the bidding events.
Blockchain
Meanwhile, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said it is supporting a multisectoral initiative to put the government’s national budget on the blockchain.
ICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said the agency was providing full support to an ongoing collaborative effort which has drawn the participation of US-based global blockchain technology leader Polygon Labs and local tech partners led by Bayani Chain.
Aguda said the DICT recognized the merit in using blockchain technology as a solution against corruption.
“Blockchain is a platform for data, with immutability. It cannot be erased or changed,” Aguda said.
“From a record keeping standpoint, you have an immutable ledger, meaning that ledger will forever be there, (serving like) a single version of the truth,” he noted.
FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list Rep. Brian Poe Llamanzares said the push also had support in both houses of Congress, with him filing House Bill 4489 to put the national budget on the blockchain.
