IBON: Swiss challenge will lead to ‘more hidden corruption’

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s preference to Swiss challenge mode for private-sector involvement in big-ticket infrastructure projects could lead to “more extensive and veiled corruption,” research group IBON said.

“The present public bidding system is imperfect but the proposed shift to the Swiss challenge system is a false solution to corruption and will make the bidding of government projects more secretive,” IBON said in a statement.

While complaining about public bidding system for supposedly breeding corruption and causing delays, Duterte last month said “all projects of the Philippines” would be implemented through Swiss challenge.

Under a Swiss challenge system, a government agency may receive unsolicited proposals from private groups that will compete to match each other’s offer. The state will then select the best proposal in terms of both quality and cost.

But according to Republic Act 7718, or the Philippine BOT law, “priority projects” are not eligible to be accepted as unsolicited proposals unless “involving new concept or technology.”

The Duterte administration has set an P8.44-trillion infrastructure spending plan until 2022 to spur gross domestic product growth to 7-8 percent starting this year from a targeted 6.5-7.5 percent in 2017.

In the same statement, IBON pointed out that under a Swiss challenge mode, the public will be unable to determine if the bid evaluation committee is giving “undue favors” to a project proponent, as the group criticized the Duterte administration’s “ineffective” executive freedom of information program.

“If there is no free competition with public bidding there is even less with the Swiss challenge — and if there is corruption with public bidding there is even more with the Swiss challenge,” IBON said.

The current procurement law directs the government to bid out its public works or services projects and the lowest bidder normally is awarded the contract.

Instead of changing gears on implementation mode, IBON said the government should introduce reforms on the current system of public bidding to ensure real transparency.

“Without reforms such as greater public scrutiny of submitted bids and public knowledge of how decisions were arrived at, the large-scale shift to the Swiss challenge system in the context of deep-seated corruption will mean large-scale deals favoring oligarchs and even foreign corporations at the expense of the public interest,” IBON said.