|
THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on
Monday expressed optimism that the second phase of the National Road
Improvement and Management Program (NRIMP) will push through soon.
Public Works Secretary Hermogenes
Ebdane Jr. said Monday that they received some positive developments
from the World Bank, which is funding the project.
“Base on the initial
information we received, it is positive. They [World Bank] have
asked for the details of management, for example, the road board,”
Ebdane told reporters.
The second phase of the NRIMP was
stalled last year after the World Bank deferred the loan for the
project from alleged bidding anomalies discovered by a technical
team on the first phase of the project.
“The road board fund is the
basic source of local counterpart funding for the project. For this
year, we will be allotting P910 million, by next year it will be P2
billion plus,” Ebdane said.
He said the government’s huge
allocation will not only accommodate the World Bank counterpart
fund, but also the Japanese project.
“The Japanese project for the
maintenance of major road networks, in case the project pushes
through, it will continue until 2015,” Ebdane said.
The World Bank rejected two large
road contracts worth at least $33 million in 2003-2006 due to
excessive pricing in the three rounds of bidding, which prompted
them to defer the 2nd phase of NRIMP set this year.
--Anthony Vargas
|
