By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
The government has put on hold the
P18.7 billion Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project for further review despite a go signal given by the Department of Justice.
“Yes the DoJ confirmed that that's a legal transaction but I'm in coordination with the Secretary of DENR to review the project. So we're putting it on hold,†Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima told the Senate finance committee during its initial deliberations of the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2011.
DENR is Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
But while in the process of review, Purisima said the government will pay the “commitment fees†for this project. He did not say, however, how much this would cost the government.
The lake project was tagged as among the so-called “midnight deals†of the previous Arroyo administration.
But the justice department issued an opinion affirming earlier findings that the Laguna Lake project, funded through an Official Development Assistance, was considered an executive agreement and therefore not covered by the Government Procurement Act that required public bidding.
The supply contract was signed by the DENR and BDC, a Belgian firm, for dredging the lake and the construction of a ferry system.
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