Detained Senator Leila de Lima has urged Congress to probe the reported irregularities in the joint venture agreement entered into by the Bases and Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) with Malaysia construction firm MTD Capital Berhad for the construction of the P8.51-billion sports facilities project for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 555, de Lima said it is incumbent for lawmakers to conduct a thorough probe into the said sports facilities which entailed unnecessary additional government spending.
“A thorough probe is warranted in the billion peso project in order to understand the choices made by the BCDA that culminated in the deal which not only failed to comply with laws, but likewise cost the government significant public funds, considering that there are other arrangements that could promote better transparency, competitiveness, equity, efficiency and economy for the government infrastructure projects,” De Lima said in a statement.
“Di birong halaga ito. Bilyon-bilyong piso na naman ng kaban ng bayan ang maaaring nalustay nang walang pakundangan. Anong akala nila sa buwis ng taumbayan, sarili nilang alkansya? (The amount spent by the government is no joke. Billions of pesos of public funds were wasted. Do they think of public funds as their own money box?” the senator added.
In its recent audit report, Commission on Audit (COA) itself, she said, stated that the BCDA gave “undue advantage” to the Malaysian firm, which won the contract to develop the facilities in the National Government Administrative Center (NGAC) in New Clark City in 2018.
The same report showed that BCDA and MTD Capital Berhad initially only agreed on a project that comprised government buildings, commercial centers and residential housing with a total cost of P4.185-billion.
But they eventually agreed to incorporate the sports facilities in the project with a project cost of P8.51-billion.
State auditors also noted that the sports facilities portion of the project planned and conceptualized by the BCDA—which was negotiated into an unsolicited proposal rather than through competitive bidding—gave MTD Capital Berhad the said “undue advantage.”
“It is incumbent upon the BCDA to justify the choice of developing the Sports Facilities under the Joint Venture which is contrary to Contract Review No. 068 issued by the OGCC on 30 January 2018 which said that, it is, as a rule, ‘subject to public bidding,’” De Lima maintained.
“The BCDA is thus obliged to disclose the factors and circumstances that surrounded the negotiations that preceded the execution of the JVA now under scrutiny,” she stressed.