The Philippines: The Most Corrupt Country in Asia?
By Ky D. Johnson
28 March 2007--On March 14, 2007 the Philippines topped the charts. Unfortunately, this was not a contest that the nation had aspired to win. The Philippines came out on top (or depending on your perspective, the bottom) of a perception survey, conducted by Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), which ranked it as the most corrupt among thirteen nations in Asia. The survey polled expatriates in the Philippines who, when asked “How big is the problem of corruption in terms of being a feature influencing the overall business environment?” gave it a 9.40 (out of 10). Indonesia and Thailand tied for the second most corrupt at 8.03.
The news spread quickly in the Philippines and the results were uniformly covered in the national media. However, the responses from the press, the government, local analysts, and the business community were far from uniform. Some questioned the utility and relevance of the survey, others felt it accurately reflected their own experience and the situation on the ground, while many shrugged their shoulders and rhetorically asked, “What’s new?”
Pork Barrel Watch Forum
One of our project partners under the Coalition Against Corruption, CODE-NGO will be holding a forum on the findings of Pork Barrel Watch, a civil society monitoring effort focused on projects funded by legislators' Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The project's aim is to ensure public service delivery and the efficient and transparent use of Pork Barrel funds.
"Combating Corruption: A Forum on the Results of the First Phase of the PDAF Watch Project" will be on 21 March 2007, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon at the Institute for Social Order, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. CODE-NGO will release names of legislators who gave data on their PDAF, and report on the status of some projects based on findings of volunteers. The forum is open to all who are interested to know how their legislators spent their Pork Barrel funds. For more information call Coalition Against Corruption at 751-1143 to 44, or CODE-NGO at 426-6001 loc. 4624 to 25.
Corruption’s cost to business
13 February 2007--"One in four UK companies lost business in the last five years because of bribery", says the corruption report. Control Risks, an international risk consultancy and Simmons & Simmons, an international law firm published the fourth International Business Attitudes to Corruption report 2006, highlighting the prevalence and cost of corruption, and the lack of awareness of anti-corruption laws.
The report surveyed 350 senior business executives from seven countries around the world and collated their responses. The report shows 1) corruption remains a huge worldwide problem for business, 2) more business people say corruption is likely to get worse, not better, 3) widespread ignorance of legislation on foreign bribery and 4) companies are trying to fight back against corrupt practices
DND fast-tracking procurement projects
29 January 2006--The Department of National Defense Bids and Awards Committe is focused on finishing 11 projects for bid under the AFP Modernization program by 2 April 2007. Under the new DND BAC Chairman Asec. Roberto Nuqui, weekly pre-bid meetings are set with suppliers, observers including the Coalition Against Corruption, and the technical working group for the priority projects to ensure completion of the biddings according to schedule. These projects include purchase of weapons, global positioning systems, helicopters and watercraft.
Public bidding urged in P930-M AFP radio deal
Inquirer
Yvonne Chua, contributor
AN ANTICORRUPTION coalition has urged the Department of National Defense to conduct a public bidding for the purchase of 12,046 VHF/FM radios worth P930.8 million under the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program.
The Coalition Against Corruption (CAC), a regular observer of biddings at the DND, submitted its proposal on Jan. 11 to Defense Assistant Secretary Roberto Nuqui, chair of the DND bids and awards committee.
The proposal came after a Philippine Daily Inquirer special report said that the purchase of the radios had been stalled for three years and had adversely affected field communications because the DND and AFP still had to resolve whether to buy them by direct contracting or by a public bidding.
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