Transparency must be the default

It is frankly exhausting to watch local governments repeat the exact same public relations mistakes every time someone questions a high-priced purchase.

The latest saga involves an electric mini sweeper bought for PHP 3.5 million.

When netizens balked at the price tag and compared it to cheaper models found online, City Hall’s initial defense was a masterclass in missing the point.

Officials quickly pointed out that the equipment was funded through the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, or EPIRA, host-community benefits.

They stressed it did not come from the city’s regular funds – as if that somehow makes it immune to strict audit.

That is a dangerous, misguided rhetorical shield.

Public money is public money, whether it is squeezed from local taxpayers or mandated by the Department of Energy under Energy Regulation No. 1-94.

Using the source of the fund to deflect price scrutiny undermines the very purpose of EPIRA benefits.

These funds are meant to deliver maximized, transparent value to the host community, not to serve as a convenient fallback when procurement gets questioned.

Eventually, the defense shifted from the source of the money to the substance of the machine.

General Services Office head Neil Ravena argued that the city’s customized unit features six brushes and an articulated hydraulic arm for sweeping elevated brick-paved gutters.

Engr. Ravena is absolutely right that comparing complex government procurement to adding a generic machine to an online shopping cart is a massive fallacy.

The internet makes everyone an armchair auditor.

A quick search yields electric sweepers priced around PHP 1 million or even lower, making it easy to look at the city’s invoice and immediately scream corruption.

But that knee-jerk outrage ignores the hidden, grueling realities of maintaining heavy public equipment.

An online seller’s primary marketing strategy is to advertise a rock-bottom base price – stripping away taxes, importation fees, and commissioning costs.

A cheap imported machine without a local service station or parts warranty quickly becomes an expensive, broken piece of scrap metal collecting dust in a government depot.

We have seen that exact scenario play out too many times. The city actually learned a hard lesson with a previous electric garbage truck that required a 380-volt transformer to operate.

That oversight cost taxpayers an extra PHP 1 million just to build compatible charging infrastructure.

Demanding 220-volt compatibility for this new mini sweeper is a vital, long-term cost-saving measure that genuinely justifies a higher initial price tag.

But explaining technical specifications on a radio broadcast is just good public relations.

Making the PhilGEPS award documents instantly accessible on the city’s website is good governance.

Ravena told critics the records are public and can be provided if formally requested. That mindset has the dynamic completely backward.

Trust is not granted just because a project has a noble objective. It is earned through relentless, uncomfortable transparency.

When residents ask valid questions about where their money went, they are not acting as enemies of progress.

They are fulfilling their role in a functioning democracy.

The burden of proof rests entirely on City Hall to justify the PHP 3.5 million price tag by publishing the winning bid documents.

Taxpayers are not responsible for navigating bureaucratic red tape, filing formal requests, and waiting days just to see how their money was spent.

Technical defenses and good intentions do not excuse local governments from proactively publishing procurement documents when public money is at stake.

If the deal is as impeccably clean as the public plazas this machine promises to sweep, putting the paperwork online should not feel like pulling teeth.

We should not have to beg to see the receipts.