By MAX ESTAYO

CLARK-The World Bank will help the government set up a uniform set of procurement rules to stop corruption in projects either funded by the government, and multilateral and bilateral lenders.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the new rules are expected to be in place within the year.

"It's about time we come out with uniform rules. The WB is setting the pace and benchmarks" Andaya said at the conclusion of the two-day Philippine Development Forum at Fontana Convention Center here.

The harmonization of the rules hopes to close the gaps in the procurement law, which have given opportunities for corruption.

The existing rules cover only government-private sector transactions, or government projects funded by multilateral institutions.

There are no rules for government-to-government projects, or those projects of the government funded by another government, an example of which is the botched national broadband project funded by the Chinese government.

Bert Hofman, country director of World Bank and co-chair of the PDF, said the crafting of the uniform guidelines is a culmination of a series of debates on how the Philippine procurement law can be improved.

"There has been a debate on the procurement rules and quality, and the alignment of Philippine rules with those of international agencies. The Philippine procurement law passed two years ago is a very progressive law and very much in line with those. A lot of the projects we financed used that law for our procurement, but there is international competitive bidding that we need to harmonize with," Hofman.

Andaya said the new rules would include rules on bid ceiling and how funds will be used in the process, among others.

"These are some of the issues that have been brought up by the different partners. Issues of bid ceiling, exclusion of Philippine contractors, etc., these have not been included before," he said.

Andaya said the government would form a committee to set the rules that will have members from the different development partners, as well as representatives from the civil society.

In the meantime that the guidelines are being crafted, Andaya said any loan assistance will have to conform to World Trade Organization procurement rules.

"Any loan assistance at this point should conform with WTO rules. Some of WB projects coming in are in compliance with these rules," Andaya said.

The government depends on official development assistance from its multilateral and bilateral partners to fund key projects including those on infrastructure. The loans are long maturing and cheaper than commercial loans.

This year, the government is sourcing $1.5 billion in ODAs for its various projects.

During the PDF, the annual dialogue between the Philippines and its development partners, the government presented over P200 billion of projects in road, power, rail and water for possible ODA financing.