WHY GOV'T PROJECTS COSTS SO MUCH

Based from Ramon Tulfo's recent entry in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, describes how Congressmen earn from their construction projects through earmarks and commissions from their preferred contractors. This practice, bloats the amount of construction projects because apart from the contractor's profit, they, the contractors, should also give at least 20% of the contract price to their patrons in the government and collude with other contractors bidding for the project.

Despite of this, projects are often left started and takes years, even centuries to be completed.
Here's a part of the story:

The Senate investigation into the blacklisting of three road construction firms by the World Bank in its road construction projects was a far cry from the one at the House of Representatives.

While Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, castigated Edward de Luna at the hearing, congressmen sang hosannahs to De Luna during the House inquiry.
Both administration and opposition congressmen unashamedly castigated the World Bank for its supposedly arbitrary blacklisting of the local construction firms.

De Luna owns EC de Luna Construction, one of those banned by the World Bank.
All the praises for De Luna and the castigation of the World Bank were done in front of the beleaguered contractor, apparently to bloat his ego.

An observer said he almost puked over the servility shown by the congressmen toward De Luna.
Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, former public works secretary, asked De Luna, in reference to my column, whether he (Datumanong) gave De Luna preferential treatment.
De Luna answered in the negative.

If you don’t call that moro-moro, I don’t know what is.

The congressmen’s boot-licking attitude toward De Luna is understandable.Most of them are his “suki” (patron) in their pork barrel projects.Everybody knows that 20 percent of the cost of a road construction or schoolbuilding project from the congressional pork barrel goes to the pockets of you-know-who as commission.

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Charlie Gonzales of Ulticon Builders, an alleged partner of De Luna in the cartel that reportedly corners all road-building contracts at the DPWH, is very close to a Davao congressman.
The congressman, a close ally of the Arroyo couple, reportedly gives Gonzales all his road construction projects from his pork barrel fund.But he is not alone. Other congressmen in the five Davao provinces and city are also Gonzales’ suki.