Hitches in opening the Subic-Clark expressway
The long-anticipated opening of the 94-km Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, now moved to April from January, may hit another snag. Dubbed as the country’s longest expressway, the expressway is funded by loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Additional funds had to be infused late last year to complete the flagship road network due to demands for payments of cost overruns by the two major Japanese contractors, Hazama-Taisei-Nippon Steel Joint Venture and the Kajima Consortium. But such accommodation has been questioned by a number of sectors, including local governments in the area and sub-contractors who have yet to be paid for services rendered, as well as local taxes and quarry fees by these Japanese contractors.
These local governments and subcontractors are dismayed at the continuing inaction of Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Narciso Abaya and his project manager, a certain retired Gen. Lena, on their request for payment while letting the two Japanese contractors get away with their questionable billings. As the road project is winding down, they are afraid that they will be left holding an empty bag as a result of Abaya’s perceived apathy.
Quite apart from the blown-up stories surrounding the cancelled national broadband network-ZTE deal, it is the problems involving many foreign contractors involving internationally funded projects in the country, such as this critical SCTEx deal, which deserve immediate attention by the government agencies concerned.
For in the end, bureaucratic apathy and inaction, if not incompetence, can be as damaging to the nation’s well being as corruption, big or small, is.
A lengthy article, which appeared in Newsbreak magazine (December 2007-February 2008), dealt with the alleged anomalies in the construction of the expressway and why its cost ballooned from the original P15 billion to P27 billion.
The expressway project is intended to integrate all economic activities in the Subic Freeport and Special Economic Zone, the Clark Special Economic Zone and the Central Techno Park in Tarlac. The idea is to transform the area into one of super-regions envisioned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Under the terms of the special yen loan package for the SCTEx, only Japanese construction companies and consultants are qualified to bid for the project and no less than 50 percent of the cost of materials should be bought from Japan or from eligible local manufacturing companies. Because of this, Newsbreak reported, bids for projects funded through this type of loan are often higher than international standards.
Thus, the Philippine government has to pay more for the project that it could have pursued for a lower price. Considering that the peso has greatly appreciated to the extent that the exchange rate change from over P50 to less than P41 to the US dollar, the cost of this road project should have logically gone down.
The BCDA, however, attributed the cost spiral to changes in the design and scope of the expressway project.
Fel Maragay - Manila Standard Today
Additional funds had to be infused late last year to complete the flagship road network due to demands for payments of cost overruns by the two major Japanese contractors, Hazama-Taisei-Nippon Steel Joint Venture and the Kajima Consortium. But such accommodation has been questioned by a number of sectors, including local governments in the area and sub-contractors who have yet to be paid for services rendered, as well as local taxes and quarry fees by these Japanese contractors.
These local governments and subcontractors are dismayed at the continuing inaction of Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Narciso Abaya and his project manager, a certain retired Gen. Lena, on their request for payment while letting the two Japanese contractors get away with their questionable billings. As the road project is winding down, they are afraid that they will be left holding an empty bag as a result of Abaya’s perceived apathy.
Quite apart from the blown-up stories surrounding the cancelled national broadband network-ZTE deal, it is the problems involving many foreign contractors involving internationally funded projects in the country, such as this critical SCTEx deal, which deserve immediate attention by the government agencies concerned.
For in the end, bureaucratic apathy and inaction, if not incompetence, can be as damaging to the nation’s well being as corruption, big or small, is.
A lengthy article, which appeared in Newsbreak magazine (December 2007-February 2008), dealt with the alleged anomalies in the construction of the expressway and why its cost ballooned from the original P15 billion to P27 billion.
The expressway project is intended to integrate all economic activities in the Subic Freeport and Special Economic Zone, the Clark Special Economic Zone and the Central Techno Park in Tarlac. The idea is to transform the area into one of super-regions envisioned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Under the terms of the special yen loan package for the SCTEx, only Japanese construction companies and consultants are qualified to bid for the project and no less than 50 percent of the cost of materials should be bought from Japan or from eligible local manufacturing companies. Because of this, Newsbreak reported, bids for projects funded through this type of loan are often higher than international standards.
Thus, the Philippine government has to pay more for the project that it could have pursued for a lower price. Considering that the peso has greatly appreciated to the extent that the exchange rate change from over P50 to less than P41 to the US dollar, the cost of this road project should have logically gone down.
The BCDA, however, attributed the cost spiral to changes in the design and scope of the expressway project.
Fel Maragay - Manila Standard Today
Labels: jbic, sctex, subic clark expressway
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
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