Source:  Philippine Daily Inquirer
By Riza T. Olchondra
March 24, 2011

Officials hope to streamline infra work procedures
MANILA, Philippines—The government will soon issue “tool kits” for public-private partnerships (PPPs) to ease the rollout of projects, especially for line agencies and local government units (LGUs).

According to Socioeconomic Planning Sec. Cayetano Paderanga, the so-called tool kits will include procedural guidelines and project templates.

“The PPP guidelines are actually guidelines for the PPP Center. That is, what’s the process of accepting, who can they accept (project proposals) from, and then what to do,” Paderanga told reporters.

The PPP Center, which is under the purview of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), is also studying how LGUs can easily evaluate and roll out small-scale, replicable projects.

“There tends to be numerous proposals for small projects, such as abattoirs, bus terminals, public markets and so on. We are not really looking at setting a ceiling for PPP proposals, but for some types, we hope to be able to have a manual and template so it could be easier for them (LGU) to do,” Paderanga said.

This way, LGUs need not refer repetitive projects to the PPP center, he added.

Earlier, Philamer Torio, executive director of PPP Center, said the government was reviewing its initial list of projects for PPP to determine whether other modes of procurement would be appropriate.

Projects that lend themselves well to PPP are economic infrastructure such as roads, tollways and irrigation projects, Torio said. Social infrastructures, such as schools and hospitals, are also candidates for PPP.

Projects that are not suited for PPP may be implemented through other means, such as direct public or private funding, joint ventures, build-operate-transfer schemes and overseas development assistance.

“There may be some projects which are, for example, replicable at the local government level,” Torio said. “We would leave that to [the LGUs] since PPP projects entail about the same effort and preparation cost whether it’s large or small. We can’t handle everything through the PPP Center.”

The Philippine government initially listed 70 projects under PPP. However, economic managers whittled the list down to about 50 projects, which would be referred to the private sector for funding.