The Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) on Friday slammed Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez for failing to investigate and prosecute guilty parties involved in alleged collusive practices in government road project bids, despite being given copies of the World Bank Referral report detailing such corruption.

"The Ombudsman cannot wash her hands off this case because she was given the information more than a year ago. This is clearly an abdication of duty," the FSGO said.

The FSGO, composed of around 100 former officials seeking reforms and good governance, noted that Gutierrez got copies of the report in 2007. This was after the World Bank issued its report in November that year, following an investigation by the WB's Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) into the road projects implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The WB blacklisted seven Filipino and foreign companies for allegedly manipulating biddings for $33-million worth of WB-financed road projects which the DPWH had been tasked to implement from 2002 to 2006.

The FSGO also cited several instances when the Ombudsman failed to take decisive action against corruption, including her "dismal action" on cases like the National Broadband Network deal, the Euro-Generals issue, the Mega Pacific Consortium contract, and graft case against former Justice Secretary Hernando B. Perez.

It also renewed calls to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez over her supposed inaction on the World Bank probe and said they are meeting with a former Congress official to file a formal impeachment complaint.

Former Finance Secretary Jesus Estanislao of the FSGO said that although they cannot formally file an impeachment complaint against Gutierrez, many FSGO officials have met with former Sen. Jovito Salonga and his camp to discuss possible legal sanctions against the Ombudsman. He also said that the two groups would be meeting early next week.

They also issued a strict reminder to Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, as a direct partner to the WB, to act on the probe.

"If it was truly concerned about collusion in a major infrastructure program funded by a loan to the Philippine government, it should have been restless in causing the Ombudsman to act by following up and exerting pressure," the group said.

Estanislao added that the FSGO had met with Teves, whom he said was the responsible officer to pass on information to the WB and the Ombudsman, to get his side on the issue.

"In fairness to [Teves], he did say that when he got the report, that he passed it on to the Ombudsman. But then we got garbled messages from them saying that they had passed it on to the Ombudsman, and that the DOF was too busy with other matters," he said.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman has denied claims that its office did not do anything about the World Bank investigations.

"We have had almost no rest in investigating those people in government who may have a hand in this, and the results of the investigation are forthcoming so they can't say that we did nothing," Gutierrez said in an interview with ABS-CBN.

The Senate, which is leading the WB probe, announced earlier that it would be holding "informal technical briefings" with the WB to shed light on the corruption allegations.