MANILA – The overall efficiency of Philippine government projects has increased due to stringent evaluation, transparent procurement and implementation-ready requirement.
In an economic bulletin penned by Finance undersecretary Gil Beltran, the Department of Finance (DOF) said rise of the government’s investments came with improved rates of return.
Citing Department of Budget and Management (DBM) data, Beltran said share of government investments on gross domestic product (GDP) has risen from 2.58 percent in 2011 to 5.40 percent in 2018.
In 2018, investments of the national government amounted to P940.4 billion, nearly four times the P250.1 billion in 2011.
Using regression analysis on 2010 to 2018 data, Beltran said “NG investment has been very efficient, with rates of return exceeding borrowing costs, currently at 5.9 percent p.a. based on the 25-year Treasury bond rate.”
He attributed this improvement to stringent evaluation of projects by the 7-man Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) that include representatives from the DOF, DBM, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Other factors are the transparent bidding process wherein terms of reference are published in the Philippine Government E-Procurement System (Philgeps), requirements that projects are implementation-ready before the DBM provides an allocation and includes it in the proposed national budget and that these projects should have been implemented in the past.
“Investment expansion has been the driving force of the economy in recent years – pushing up the country’s competitiveness and making up for previous decades of underinvestment,” the bulletin said. (PNA)
