Neri: NEDA only OK’d broadband project, not ZTE deal

Former economic planning head Romulo Neri on Friday said it is the Department of Transportation and Communications and not the National Economic Development Authority that should tell the Senate why the contract for the national broadband network project was awarded to ZTE Corp. “NEDA approved the broadband project. It doesn’t dictate how the procurement and contractual procedures would be processed," Neri told GMA News. Neri, now chief of the Commission on Higher Education, said the DOTC is in the position to explain why ZTE was chosen as the supplier and builder of the multi-million dollar NBN project. Neri said part of the process calls for NEDA’s scrutiny of the ZTE contract but the economic planning agency has yet to see the deal in black and white. When asked if President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had any knowledge of the controversial deal, Neri declined to comment. Neri also disclosed that he had many meetings with poll chief Benjamin Abalos and Jose “Joey" de Venecia III on the NBN project but he declined to reveal what transpired in their talks. Neri, who failed to show up at the Senate probe on the alleged anomalous $330-million contract for the government’s broadband project with China’s Zhong Xiao Telecommunications Equipment Corp due to intestinal flu, said he will attend the next hearing. “I promised the Senate that I will come," said Neri who is now heavily guarded by armed security men. - GMANews.TV