abstract

Resilient procurement systems will ensure quality delivery of publicly funded bike lane projects which are critical to COVID-19 recovery, transport inflation management, and climate resiliency.

We reviewed P1 billion worth of nationally funded pop-up bike lane contracts from 2020 to 2021 and find that (i) bike lanes were procured at an average cost of P2.15 million per kilometer, covering a total reported length of 497 kilometers, (ii) the median procurement duration from advertising date to notice to proceed took 34 days, (iii) government saved P14.7 million from having more than one bidder compete for the contracts, and (iv) government could have saved up to P214 million if items had been bought at median prices, based on construction materials price data from the Department of Public Works and Highways (see disclaimer below).

Learning from advocates and previous open contracting reform experiences, we propose ways for government and civil society to collaborate in improving transparency, participation, accountability mechanisms towards building trust in the procurement system, including: opening up contracting datasets, strengthening the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System as a government institution, drafting new commitments to the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan, and building a procurement integrity movement.

Disclaimer: These research findings cannot and should not be used to conclude fraud or corruption, because this research only covers limited publicly available documents. This study intends to inform the government and civil society on how they might mitigate potential risks in the system for new rounds of bike lane- and infrastructure-related procurement.

Key highlights:

  1. Empirical findings of procurement datasets

  2. Case studies of bike lane procurement in the Philippines and abroad

  3. Organizational findings

  4. Model data disclosure for bike lanes

  5. Policy recommendations

This research was done in partnership with the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and is funded by a grant from the Open Government Partnership.

If interested in collaborating, you may get in touch with Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco Abante through kiabante@wesolve.ph.