us your views and comments about this article.
Or discuss it in our blog.
SEE ALSO
- SIDEBAR | WB PROBERS CAUGHT CHEATS, ALMOST
RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
- THE CONFIDENTIAL WITNESSES
- WHAT THE WITNESSES SAID
- LIST OF PERSONS INTERVIEWED BY THE WORLD BANK DEPARTMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY
RELEVANT LINKS
- $45M LOST TO BRIBES FOR 'CARTEL' BACKED BY DPWH EXECS, POLS
- WORLD BANK REPORT: A MIX OF FACTS, RUMOR, INNUENDO
- WORLD BANK, DPWH REVIEW SAME BIDS BUT DRAW OPPOSITE CONCLUSIONS
- SIDEBAR | CONTRACTORS IN CONGRESS
PREVIOUS REPORTS
- 2008 | CHRONIC ILLNESSES ON THE RISE IN MARCOPPER TOWNS
- IN THE NEWS | HOUSE OPPOSITION SEEKS CAPS ON ARROYO'S SPENDING HABITS
- CROSSBORDER | THAILAND'S CONTINUING CRISIS
- PUBLIC EYE | MIKE ARROYO CLAIM STALLS LAND REFORM IN NEGROS
- SPECIAL REPORT | EVERY 6 HOURS, PIRATES SEIZE A FILIPINO SEAMAN
- PERSPECTIVE | THAT BUMPY RIDE CALLED DEMOCRACY
- PUBLIC EYE | AMID THE FIGHTING, THE CLAN STILL RULES IN MAGUINDANAO
- TILL DEBT DO US PART? | GLORIA'S INGLORIOUS RECORD: BIGGEST DEBTOR, LEAST POPULAR
- THE ECONOMY | MISPLACED GOVERNMENT SPENDING WORSENS WOES
- HOUSE FACELIFT TO COST TAXPAYERS P1 BILLION; FUND SOURCE A PUZZLE
- PUBLIC EYE | ROMULO L. NERI: CAN GOLF, REALPOLITIK WORK AT SSS?
- 2008 | ARROYO ALLIES LINKED TO 'GARCI' BEHIND MYSTERY FIRM IN PAGCOR 'TOURISM CITY'
- 2008 | ILLEGAL FISH OPERATIONS POISON TAAL LAKE
- PUBLIC EYE | ARROYO FAILS COA AUDIT
- 2008 | MAGUINDANAO, RP FALL BEHIND KEY INDICATORS FOR EDUCATION
- PUBLIC EYE | NO CURE FOR COSTLY MEDICINES? DRAFT LAW AFFIRMS PATENT RIGHTS OF DRUG FIRMS
- 2008 | NEW CSC CHIEF FACES PACK OF INELIGIBLE BUREAUCRATS
- 2008 | ODA SURGE SPARKS SCANDALS FOR ARROYO, DEBT WOES FOR RP
- 2008 | PRICE-CONTROL-BOARD
DEBATE MAY DELAY CHEAP DRUGS LAW
- ARCHIVES
Our latest story reveals that the four contractors debarred by the World Bank anti-corruption unit, the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT), had received among the biggest contracts, by value, awarded by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The companies — CM Pancho Construction, E.C. de Luna Construction Corporation, Cavite Ideal International Construction and Development Corporation, and China State Construction Engineering Corporation — secured a combined P1.6 billion worth of DPWH contracts, from 2005 to 2008, or even while the INT inquiry was under way or had wrapped up.
However, the contractors who had been spared from sanctions — apparently because they blew the whistle on the alleged cartel of contractors, bureaucrats and politicians rigging public works projects — in fact obtained an even greater amount of contracts from the DPWH.
Four of these firms that served as “whistle-blowers” or witnesses of the INT — Wee Eng Construction, Inc. R.D. Policarpio, P.L. Sebastian and J. M. Luciano Corporation — received contracts altogether worth P2.28 billion, or 42 per cent more than the contracts bagged by the sanctioned contractors. Of the P2.28 billion, about half or P1.1 billion went to Wee Eng, which bagged at least 24 project contracts from the DPWH, including 17 contracts signed in a week's time, or from Nov. 17 to 24, 2006.
To do this story, the PCIJ mined the 1,102 web pages of data on awarded contracts from 2000 to 2008 that the DPWH has posted on its web site, www.dpwh.gov.ph.
The PCIJ has requested the DPWH for an electronic spreadsheet version of the data but was told that it has yet to secure approval from DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane. If approved, the DPWH said it could only provide the PCIJ static PDF copies of the data.
Hence, to acquire and mine the database, the PCIJ developed a software application that copies each of the web pages and compiles the data into comma-separated values (CSV) format. The PCIJ will make this database available online on pcij.org and i-site.ph for journalists and citizens to study further.
THEY MAY have played vastly different roles but both the suspects and the whistle-blowers in the World Bank investigation on collusion and corruption in Bank-funded road projects in the Philippines have one thing in common: They all bagged some of the biggest public works contracts from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
But even bigger in value and number are the DPWH contracts obtained by the firms that served as whistle-blowers and witnesses — who were not sanctioned — in the investigation conducted by the World Bank's anti-corruption unit, the powerful Department of Institutional Integrity (INT).
These are among the findings of an exhaustive analysis by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) of 27,535 awarded public-works contracts from 2000 to 2008 that the DPWH has posted on its website, www.dpwh.gov.ph. (see table)
The PCIJ has requested the DPWH for an electronic spreadsheet version of its data enrolled in 1,102 pages but was told that the request has yet to be cleared with Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. If approved, the DPWH said it could only provide the PCIJ static PDF (portable document format) copies of the database.
To acquire and mine the information, the PCIJ developed a software application that copies each of the web pages and compiles the data into comma-separated values (CSV) format.
BILLIONS OF PESOS Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Corp, which the INT had wanted to sanction but was not debarred, ranked as the 76th biggest contractor, out of a total of 1,791 contractors.
Together, the five companies bagged public works contracts with a combined value of P1.6 billion.
But the combined value of the DPWH contracts won by four other companies that were not the subject of the probe but assisted as witnesses of the INT, reached P2.28 billion.
About half of that P2.28 billion went to Wee Eng Construction Inc. alone, including 16 chopped up road projects in Quezon province that the DPWH awarded in just a week's time — from November 17 to 24, 2006.
Emerging as the 16th biggest contractor among those with contracts with the DPWH, Wee Eng outranks all the debarred companies in terms of total value of its DPWH deals. The three other cooperative companies, meanwhile, beat out E.C. de Luna and C.M. Pancho.
Whistleblowers R.D. Policarpio & Co, and J.M. Luciano Construction came in as the DPWH’s 61st and 78th biggest contractors, respectively. The owner of the 58th biggest contractor, P.L. Sebastian Construction, was also interviewed but did not reveal damning information.
Four of the debarred firms — Cavite Ideal International Construction and Development Corp, China State Construction Engineering Corp, E.C. de Luna Construction Corp and C.M. Pancho Construction Inc — are the 45th, 49th, 144th, and 390th biggest contractors, respectively, in terms of total value of contracts awarded by the DPWH.
* Debarred
** Given sanctions notice but not debarred
Source: he DPWH posts 1,102 pages of data on awarded contracts (2000 to 2008) on its web site, www.dpwh.gov.ph. The PCIJ has requested an electronic spreadsheet version of the data but was told by the DPWH that it has yet to clear the request with Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. If approved, the DPWH said it can only provide the PCIJ static PDF copies of the data. To acquire the information, the PCIJ developed a software application that copies each of the web pages and compiles the data into comma-separated values (CSV) format.
Email us your comments about this article, or post them in our blog.
Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.
PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM