Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan revealed that the surge in ghost and substandard flood control projects is largely due to the absence of proper monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
During the Senate budget hearing for the DepDev, Balisacan explained that funding for project monitoring and evaluation was discontinued after the term of former President Noynoy Aquino in 2015.
He emphasized that such assessments could have helped ensure the quality of infrastructure and government programs.
Balisacan noted that the current situation lacks support for conducting impact and monitoring assessments on completed and ongoing projects, resulting in repeated implementation failures.
He further stressed that conducting monitoring and evaluation is not costly, especially with the presence of capable universities and research institutions across the country that could assist in these studies.
Balisacan warned that without these systems, government programs and projects risk being wasteful and ineffective.