World Bank Says Contractors Have Detailed Report

Senator Chiz Escudero wants documents from the 3 blacklisted contractors.

Senator Chiz Escudero today said the Senate need not wait anymore for the World Bank to officially release its report on bid rigging in a multi-million dollar road project as the upper chamber can obtain it directly from the three Filipino contractors allegedly involved in the collusion.

Escudero said World Bank officials in Washington told him that the report given to the contractors is more detailed than what was released to the Department of Finance.

The senator said he will ask the Committee on Economic Affairs, when it resumes the probe on Thursday, to subpoena these documents from E.C. De Luna Construction Corp., Cavite Ideal International Construction and Development Corp. and the CM Pancho Construction Inc. – all three were named and banned by the World Bank from participating in its future projects because of the alleged bid rigging.

“The World Bank officials confirmed to me that prior to the banning of these contractors, they were each given a detailed list of allegations and accusations. Everything is there,” he said in a press conference a day after he arrived from a week-long visit in Washington.

Escudero met with three World Bank officials in Washington last week where he made a direct appeal in his capacity as a member of the Philippine Senate for the bank to release an official copy to the upper chamber.

“I told them that it is a matter of public interest to the Filipino people. If their counterpart which is the finance department sat on their job and did nothing about their recommendation, I told them to give the Senate the benefit of doing something about it. Why insist on dealing only with the same agency that is responsible for the corruption?”

Escudero said of his meeting with Shaun Moss, Regional Procurement Manager for East Asia and the Pacific, Ben Gericke, Senior Transport Engineer and Steve Charles Burgess, Senior Operations Officer.

The World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity said it gave Department of Finance a copy of the report in November 2007.

He said the Bank officials told him that the contractors were given in May 2008 a notice of sanctions proceedings which cited all of their alleged wrongdoing. They were given 90 days to respond in their defense, but all three failed to respond to the allegations, said Escudero.

“It’s simple logic, if one accuses you of being a thief and you know very well it’s not true, won’t you defend yourself and your honor? Why the silence from these contractors?” he asked.

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