President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Monday said he was shocked to find out that a standard procedure designed to safeguard against corruption in government infrastructure projects was removed during the previous administration.
In the latest BBM Podcast, President Marcos said the implementation of national government projects stopped following the rules during the last decade.
The Chief Executive recalled that when he served as governor of Ilocos Norte, local officials played a crucial role in the quality control of projects initiated by the national government.
“When I was in local government, when the national government came in and was going to do construction, they came in, they did the project. At some point, they come back to the local government executives and say, ‘Tapos na. Natapos namin ‘yung project,” the President shared.
“Iinspeksyunin namin ngayon ‘yun. ‘Pag nakita namin hindi maganda ito, hindi tama itong ginawa ninyo, hindi ko pipirmahan ‘yung acceptance.”
President Marcos said the contractor cannot receive payment if the local government refuses to sign the acceptance document, so the contractor must rectify the defects and complete the project.
“Apparently, in the last administration, they removed that entirely. I was shocked because this is the standard procedure, this is like – you don’t think about this anymore,” the President said.
Meanwhile, the President acknowledged the potential of new technologies in enhancing data transparency in the national budget and government projects.
“I haven’t seen any AI that is specifically geared towards that. Blockchain is something that could work,” President Marcos said when asked about his views on blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in ensuring transparency in government transactions.
Blockchain technology is a decentralized, distributed, and immutable digital ledger that records transactions in blocks, linked chronologically in a chain, creating a shared, tamper-proof database stored across multiple computers in a network. This network is designed to ensure data integrity and transparency. | PND
