PROJECTS with cost overruns will no longer be processed by the National Economic and Development Authorioty (Neda) without a budget strategy coming from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Neda Acting Director General Augusto Santos told the BusinessMirror in an interview that this was the decision of the Neda Board in its meeting on  Tuesday following the announcement that several government projects have already incurred cost overruns worth P31.2 billion.

Santos said  this will deter implementing agencies from incurring future cost overruns that “drain the economy.”

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya told the BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the joint press conference of the World Bank and the government on the National Roads Improvement and Management Project Phase 2, that the budget strategy will be implemented because cost overruns are already “bigger than the budget of a government agency.”

Andaya said that cost overruns cannot also be dealt with with one single requirement. He said there is really a need to harmonize rules, even for cost overruns.

He explained that foreign-funded projects are difficult to monitor due to the difference in policies. However, Andaya hopes that with the approval of the Implementing Rules and Regulations-B, there will be a means to harmonize the government’s procurement document and manuals with official development assistance partners.

Apart from the budget strategy, the Neda Board will now require implementing agencies to not only justify the cost overruns for projects to the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) but also to the board, the highest policymaking body of the Neda.

Santos added that implementing agencies must also be able to ensure that projects are still economically viable even with cost overruns. Otherwise, he said, implementing agencies will be asked to downscale the projects.

These requirements, Santos said, will be implemented starting this week’s ICC Cabcom meeting at the Finance department today.

Meanwhile, on cost overruns, Neda Project Monitoring Staff Director Roderick Planta told the BusinessMirror that the P31.2 billion worth of cost overruns mainly consist of cost overruns from huge forex losses such as those incurred by the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

Planta said the agencies which incurred the biggest cost overruns are the same agencies identified in the 15th ODA Portfolio Review.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has advised Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. to proceed with the construction of its Didipio mine in Kasibu, Aklan, saying the company is operating within the bounds of the law.

Infrastructure projects undertaken by the government are prone to posting cost overruns, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued by the Regional Trial Court here on Tuesday regarding the implementation of Pampanga’s  Ordinance 176, otherwise known as “An Ordinance Provi-ding for the Equitable Distribution of Shares of Fees/Taxes Imposed by the Province of Pampanga for the Extraction of Quarry Materials and for Other Purposes.”

PROJECTS with cost overruns will no longer be processed by the National Economic and Development Authorioty (Neda) without a budget strategy coming from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

A THREE-DAY conference on wastes among local officials and their representatives ended Thursday with green groups pushing for the application of innovative solutions to the garbage problem to help reverse global warming and climate change.

THE Cebu Business Month (CBM)  activity of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) next month will hold the first Philippine Open Source Summit at the Cebu International Convention Center.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) signed an agreement with two farm-based nongovernment groups to allow them to recommend industry representatives to join the department in its ocular inspections of shipments of imported farm products at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

LOCAL seaweed producers has projected that the volume of carrageenan exports for this year may go down by 50 percent to 80,000 metric tons (MT), from 160,000 MT, as production of seaweed slows due to poor harvests and increasing cost of manufacturing carrageenan.

DECRYING the incomparable costs of living against the increase in cost of basic commodities and utilities, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) urged Thursday the scrapping of “unjust charges” to reduce power rates.