EDITORIAL  – The right to know

In approving any project involving public funds, there are three considerations: the country must need the project, taxpayers must be able to afford it, and the deal must offer the best value for money.

Alongside these considerations, transparency is a key requirement. Whether the project is financed through a loan from a foreign government, in which case public bidding is not required, or was awarded through bidding, the public has a right to know details about the deal, especially the conditions attached to it. Foreign loans, no matter how seemingly easy the terms, are not always in the best interest of the recipient, and must be closely scrutinized because taxpayers’ money will be used for repayment.

These matters must be addressed as the government reviews the national broadband network deal with China’s ZTE Corp. Several months after the original document for the project, which was signed by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Chinese authorities in the presence of President Arroyo, was lost in China, different government officials have different versions of what was signed. Was it a contract, signed during a campaign period in violation of election laws? Was it a mere financial agreement? The government says what was signed has been reconstituted, but the reconstituted version has yet to be made public.

The Department of Justice has so far upheld one aspect of the deal: there was no need for a public bidding, the DOJ said in a legal opinion, because the whopping $329 million for the project – double the price tag of a similar broadband service proffered by another interested party – is supposed to be provided by Beijing in the form of a soft loan. Amid criticism that the nation does not need the broadband service, the Department of Finance is said to be reviewing the deal. The case has been brought to the Supreme Court and Congress is poised to conduct an investigation.

Such troubles could have been avoided if the government had been transparent about its plans. Whether it’s an interconnected broadband service for all government offices, a cyber education project, poll automation, an airport terminal or rice importation, the nation has a right to know if public funds are being spent judiciously. If the considerations enumerated above cannot be met, the deal is rotten and must be discarded.