The DSWD would like to address the alleged issues emanating from the procurement activities of KALAHI CIDSS project in the province of Albay.

The provincial local government unit (LGU) of Albay currently leads in the implementation of KALAHI CIDSS, a pilot project in Luzon.

As a poverty-reduction project implemented in Bicol since 2003, one unique feature of KALAHI CIDSS is the prioritization of subprojects based on the criteria set by the beneficiaries and ordinary citizens involved with guidance from DSWD and various national government agencies (NGAs).

Moreover, the same process has been adopted in this PLGU-led type of implementation in Albay to ensure that limited public funds will be put into proper use. Based on the consensual decision of the 15 participating municipal LGUs with community consultations conducted beforehand, these were the following criteria municipal LGUs have developed and approved of:

1. Inter-Municipal Linkage 20%
2. Poor Municipalities 25%
a) Poverty Incidence
b) Location
3. Influenced Population within the Municipality 25%
4. SGH Holder (2012) 10%
5. Counterpart Funds 10%
6. DRR-CCA 10%

All subprojects went through competitive bidding and DSWD has no direct involvement over the procurement process because the municipal LGU’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), the procuring entity, is responsible to undertake measures to ensure transparency, competitiveness, accountability and adherence to standards required by law.

We would like to emphasize that the project employs community-driven development approach in this pilot project. With the help of the elected representatives of the covered communities through the Barangay Monitoring Teams (BMTs), ordinary residents safeguard the project’s procurement down to its implementation along with the Commission on Audit (COA).

DSWD’s role is to provide overall direction and supervision in its implementation of the pilot through technical assistance and capacity development and mentoring activity to the provincial government.

DSWD and Asian Development Bank (ADB) believes that Albay’s provincial LGU and municipal LGUs have a wide experience in CDD implementation with present institutional capacity and potentials to lead a participatory process of planning, budgeting, execution and monitoring and evaluation. This pilot implementation harmonizes PLGU’s and MLGUs’ development priorities to address poverty.

Thus, the result of this KALAHI CIDSS PLGU engagement pilot implementation in Albay will be used in the future scale-up of the said project.