As two projects were found to be substandard
BAGUIO CITY – Two of the six projects inspected by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and City Administrator Engr. Bonifacio Dela Peña as part of the new procedure to ensure the quality of infrastructure projects in the city received a failed mark from the two officials.
In view of this, Mayor Magalong warned anew contractors to avoid shortchanging the city by delivering substandard outputs lest they end up unable to collect their payments.
He said contractors should stick to their programs of work and devote the entire cost to the project.
“From the start, I have said that I will not beholden myself to any contractor and will not tolerate bribery or ‘lagay’ or ‘suhol’ so the only thing that I am asking of them now is to deliver projects that are commensurate to their approved costs,” the mayor said.
Starting last Oct. 30, Magalong and Dela Peña made two rounds of inspections covering six projects that are about to be completed in various locations in the city.
Dela Peña who heads the city’s Bids and Awards Committee for infrastructure said the first round covered five projects mostly horizontal infrastructure particularly road and slope protection projects under the City Engineering Office.
“Out of the five projects, only three passed. The other two have lots of improvements to be done,” he said.
The second round of inspection last Nov. 6 intended to cover another five projects this time vertical infrastructures under the City Building and Architecture Office.
However only one project, a day care center at San Antonio Village in Aurora Hill was inspected as the other four asked for extension to undertake more work.
He said the contractors’ reaction proved that they have begun to take seriously the city’s new procedures of inspection-first and no-quality-no-payment.
As per the new procedure, the inspection will happen before the city makes the second and final payment for the project and those that passed will be issued a clearance to collect the final payment.
Dela Peña said they will not hesitate to implement the ‘remove and replace’ policy for projects that will not pass the inspection.
Dela Peña said another new procedure adopted will require all programs of work from the CEO and CBAO to be reviewed by his office to ensure that the resulting infrastructure will be usable.
He said they have observed that some projects remain unusable despite full compliance of the contractor to the approved project specification due to incomplete programs of work.
“We have to first review these programs of work now so that adjustments can be made to ensure that even if the funds are not enough, the resulting infrastructure, although still incomplete, can be used outright by the beneficiaries,” he said.** Aileen P. Refuerzo
