The Philippines, no matter how hospitable and friendly their people may be, has also a dark side. Graft and corruption is so rampant in this country that government politicians, more often or not, are always seen in a bad light. For most Filipinos, elections always seemed to be rigged for political dynasties that offer ghost projects, which are always all in favor of fattening a politician’s wallet.
Though happening right in front of everyone’s eyes, no action seems to be taken, mainly because of fear. Fear that government officials can easily bribe the law on overseeing his or her “productive” ghost projects. Fear that a corrupt government official may easily strike and bring down those who blame and fight him. And the most dreaded fear of all, the paranoia and bleak pessimism that nothing will ever happen to change graft and corruption in the Philippines.
That is where Procurement Watch steps in. Shedding light and much needed-hope for a troubled nation’s public in the fight against corruption, Procurement Watch is non-profit, non-partisan, civil society organization created to fight and hopefully end graft and corruption. Created by concerned and hardworking individuals from both the government and private sectors, Procurement Watch’s diverse members hope that its expertise can effectively investigate, prevent and eliminate Philippine’s government loopholes.
Taking into account that graft and corruption in the Philippines comes in all forms of degrees and levels, Procurement Watch also develops an equally large number of programs to combat the threats. One such program is the Bantay Eskuwela (School Guard), which hopes to identify and combat corruption that may affect Filipino schools.
The diverse NGO knows that the battle against graft and corruption may be long and hard. Procurement Watch, in one of their other programs, have started training and providing the latest information on different batches of trustworthy procurement trainers. By training the trainers, information against the fight against graft and corruption is effectively spread out, giving the people the hope and tools to stand up against otherwise iron fisted government officials.
Knowledge and information is indeed a tool that can be harnessed to fight graft and corruption. Procurement Watch also regularly releases information and statistics of various government projects. This will not only let the public know which government officials are actually doing their job, or which government projects are actually taking advantage and making use of its allotted budget; but will also give the peace of mind and positive mindset on knowing that each taxpayer’s hard earned money goes exactly to where it should belong – the Philippines’ progress as a nation.
When the Filipino public has had enough of the terrible burden that graft and corruption has done to their lives, it’s good to know that a group like Procurement Watch exists.
