REPORT
MANILA, JANUARY 18, 2012 (ELLEN
TORDESILLAS BLOG) Philippine media has a term for it: kuryente
It looks like a number of Philippine media organizations were victims
of a hoax World BanK Report regarding Supreme Court's Judicial Reform Support
Project criticizing Chief Justice Renato Corona and Court Aministrator Midas
Marquez.
Manila Bulletin came out with a report on WB disowning the so-called
JRSP report. Here it is: World Bank disowns JRSP report By CHINO S. LEYCO
January 16, 2012, 5:38pm
MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank denied on Monday it released a report on
the Supreme Court's Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP) that noted its
dissatisfaction with the way the project was being implemented.
Erika Leann Lacson-Esguerra, World Bank program assistant for external
relations, said Monday the bank did not release to the media a supposed memo
regarding the "unsatisfactory" progress of the high court's loan.
"This email message did not come from the World Bank. Any official statement
from the World Bank will be posted online (www.worldbank.org.ph),"
Lacson-Esguerra said.
On Monday, several newspapers including Manila Bulletin received a press
release on JRSP's progress report that claimed it was an official statement
coming from the World Bank.
The press release said that since mid-2010, or months after Supreme Court
Chief Justice Renato Corona took over, progress in attaining the project
development objective and implementation have been rated "unsatisfactory."
"The World Bank also noted the continuing procurement delays, uneven pace and
quality of implementation, limited information on project results and fiduciary
issues," the statement read.
Data from the World Bank's website revealed that the pace of implementation
has picked up under Corona's leadership, saying more than $1.3 million was
disbursed in the first half of 2011 alone.
Of the total project cost of $24.4 million, which aims to make the judicial
system more accessible, about $21.9 million would come from World Bank's
International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the remaining
$2.5 million will come from the national government.
Data from the World Bank showed that the bank has disbursed a total of $16.47
million as of December 31.
It also showed that the JRSP project could not be completed by December 31,
2009, and had to be extended by 18 months, to June 30, 2011.
The extension, however, was not enough, so the project was extended anew to
June 30, 2012.
The bank attributed the delays to implementation and coordination issues in
the Supreme Court, lengthy procurement processes as well as changes in the
judiciary leadership.
The World Bank also cited the severe Typhoon "Ondoy" in 2009 as a setback
because of the damage it brought to courts and records.
The bank also said that aside from the extension, the loan was also modified,
with some loans reallocated and $500,000 cancelled.
World Bank did not disclose of reason for the cancellation.
"There are no changes to components but there are modifications to some
activities within components. These changes have no implications for the
development objectives," the World Bank said.
On Monday, President Benigno S. Aquino III called for a review on the use of
judiciary fund for transparency after the impeachment trial of Chief Justice
Renato Corona is finished. (Additional reports from Genalyn
D. Kabiling and Hannah L. Torregoza)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Here's the hoax WB report which I got by email. I did not use it.
MEMO RE: WORLD BANK REPORT ON THE JUDICIAL REFORM SUPPORT PROJECT DATE: 8
JANUARY 2012 x——————————————————————————————————-x
Background: The World Bank (WB) approved a loan to finance the Philippine
Supreme Court's Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP) on 2 October 2003. The
thrust of the JRSP is to assist in developing a more effective and accessible
judiciary that would foster public trust and confidence through the
implementation of the Supreme Court's Judiciary Program for Judicial Reform
conceptualized during the term of Justice Hilario Davide. The JRSP is set to end
30 June 2012 and is therefore at the closing stage. Disbursements as of 30
November 2011 is at US$16.3 million.
However, the WB Task Force has forcefully called the attention of the Supreme
Court that while there were significant early victories such as the small claims
court and the e-library, "since mid-2010, progress in (a) attaining the project
development objective and (b) implementation have been rated 'Unsatisfactory".
Hence, the unsatisfactory performance is directly attributable to Renato Corona
since he assumed the position of Chief Justice in June 2010. The WB also noted
the continuing procurement delays, uneven pace and quality of implementation,
limited information on project results and fiduciary issues. Among the
significant delays were the dropping of the Halls of Justice for Mindanao and
Manila. While Halls of Justice for Angeles and Lapu-Lapu pushed through, the WB
found that both remain at risk of diminished levels of performance and
insufficient maintenance.
While the WB noted the incompetence and inefficiency in the implementation of
the project that is the ultimate responsibility of Corona as CJ, its key finding
is that the fiduciary environment pertaining to JRSP implementation has so
deteriorated that the JRSP was rated as "`high risk' and `unsatisfactory' on
project management, project procurement and financial management dimensions",
and it was observed that the SC's "project financial statements can no longer be
relied upon." The WB stated that the fiduciary failures begun in 2010 and
accelerated in 2011. From mid-2010, project decision-making became more
centralized with the sidelining of the Program Management Office (PMO) and the
assumption of authority of Marquez (Public Information Officer (PIO) Midas
Marquez was appointed also as the Court Administrator, Chairman of Bidding and
Awards Committee and as the authorized signatory of Corona) that there was a
break-down and elimination of internal controls that resulted in questionable
procurement and expenditures, ineligible disbursements, retroactive contracts,
uncontrolled commitments, increased risk of contingent liabilities and potential
over-commitment of funds. The WB continued "as a result, the quality of project
implementation and reliability of project financial information deteriorated.
These were the observations that resulted in that rating:
1. The capacity of the SC's Program Management Office (PMO) that was supposed
to oversee the implementation of the project was downgraded. PMO staff was
reduced from 30 to 10. PMO personnel with institutional memory departed or were
sidelined and an ad hoc management style emerged that has demoralized remaining
PMO personnel. The WB also noted that while the PMO had responsibility, it had
no authority. As a result, there was a loss of attention to project development
objectives and results;
2. Instead, authority was shifted to Midas Marquez. Hence, the WB this noted
that since mid-2010, an increasingly top-down project decision-making and
implementation process (especially on what to procure and through what method)
has resulted in the exclusion of key stakeholders within the SC and diminished
existing internal "check-and-balance" mechanisms. Power and authority over the
JRSP was consolidated to Public Information Officer (PIO) Midas Marquez, who was
also appointed as the SC Court Administrator. Marquez was authorized to approve
on behalf of the Chief Justice payments up to P200,000 which was later increased
to P500,000. Marquez was also the Chair of the Bidding and Awards Committee in
2010. Thus, in 4 contracts to one firm (Media Banc), Marquez was the requestor
of the services, the approver of terms of reference, the end user and the
authorizer of contract extensions and payments to the firm. The report also
stated that Marquez appear to exercise authority without commensurate
responsibility or accountability.
3. Consequently, the WB noted that "procurement and financial management
disclose numerous issues. Contract management was rated "unsatisfactory":
substantial implementation delays (and possibly cost escalation) have occurred
on key contracts and the final benefits and impact of project activities are
likely to be significantly less than expected." In addition, there are delays in
payments, incomplete billings and there appears to be unpaid bills. WB noted
since mid-2010, GOP financed payments amounting to P43.9 million has not been
made by the SC. In view thereof, there is high risk of contingent liabilities
despite fact that project was about to be completed.
4. The WB noted that while the project was supposed to be in the closing
stage, there was a sudden increase in expenditure in the latter half of 2011
that were mostly made without prior agreement with the WB and even in spite of
such non-agreement. The Bidding and Awards Committee chaired by Marquez went
ahead with procurement knowing these were not included in the agreed procurement
plan or not agreed with the Bank. Worse, ICT goods were not procured for
front-line judges and court personnel who desperately needed it but for the SC
in Manila. Only 14 percent of the ICT goods went to the lower courts—the key
JRSP beneficiaries. 62% by value of the IT procurements bought in small lots was
used for SC and appellate courts. 18 % of the purchases went to units or
officials whose connection with the JRSP project was unclear such as for Justice
Roberto Abad, the Bar Examination Chairperson.
The WB noted that it was not even aware of the IT purchase for the Regional
Court Administrator Office (RCAO) which is under Marquez until a site visit when
Lapu-Lapu judges informed them that they received no IT equipment under the
JRSP. Apparently, the IT purchases were diverted to the RCAO at the initiative
of Marquez, leaving the courts bereft of IT equipment. The WB noted that it was
not informed of this "major change in destination of IT equipment earmarked for
a priority front-line project beneficiary group!" [1]
The purchase of these ICT through inefficient and expensive shopping
procedure (which practice emerged since mid-2010 and accelerated in 2011) mostly
outside of the agreed procurement plan and through individual items and small
lots inimical to economy and efficiency accelerated in 2011. The WB noted that
this procurements 'appear to be driven by the objective of rapidly disbursing
JRSP resources" before the loan expires despite the fact that this was outside
of project priorities or results.
5. The WB based on a random sampling of only 133 SC disbursements, 70
payments totaling US$199,900 as ineligible and asked SC to reimburse. SC has
initiated refund but as of 30 November 2011, US$161,422 has not yet been
refunded. The WB noted that of these ineligible expenditures, 16 expenditures
were for Marquez's Office of the Court Administrator.
Among the ineligible expenditures were: speaker's fees for Marquez' a unnamed
OCA staff, registration fees of unnamed senior SC official to the Court Public
Information Seminar in Atlanta, USA and International Association of the Court
Administration in Jakarta, Airfare of Judges to Sydney, registration fee of
unnamed Senior Supreme Court official and OCA staff for a Conference in Bogor,
Indonesia, trips and accommodation of SC officials to Cebu, room accommodation
during the Goodwill games with Guam at P69,000, meals with justice and Guam
delegation at P83,529, 11 notebook computers for OCA (at P259,050), 8 units of
laptop at P364,960 and 1 unit at P65,580 for 2011 Bar Chairperson (Justice
Roberto Abad), 12 units desktop and 1 notebook to Office of the Chief Justice at
P496,790, 1 unit printer at P24,415 for the OCA.
6. The WB also stated that the information it received about the amount of
Government contribution is not fully reliable. The WB task force found that they
were misled as to the amount of actual GOP contribution. The SC claimed that the
unspent balance of the GOP commitment was US$.8 million (P34 million at current
exchange rate) but the WB team was informed that outstanding GOP counterpart was
P50 million. Hence, it appears SC was not disbursing GOP contributions.
7. The practice of "borrowing funds" from the WB account to finance unrelated
expenditures like foreign travel, conferment of honorary degrees, Goodwill games
was also noted. There were also expenses that were never reimbursed such as
costs of tickets paid to a travel agent.
8. As a result of the mismanagement of the JRSP and the delays in the
implementation, Philippines suffered exchange rate losses due to the devaluation
of the US dollar amounting to US$3.9 million (about P174.5 million, including
realized losses of P88.6 million)
[1] Par. 27 of page 9 of the Report.
January 17, 2012 12:23 am
Tags:
Judicial Reform Support Project, Renato
Corona, World Bank JRSP Posted in: Justice, Supreme Court
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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