MANILA, Philippines – TINAWAGAN ng pansin ng Commission on Audit (COA) ang Department and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) dahil sa naantalang mga proyekto o hindi natapos na proyekto sa target completion date nito “as of end-2022” na nagkakahalaga ng P60 bilyong piso.
Sa annual audit report ng COA sa DPWH, sinabi ng komisyon na hindi natapos o hindi nakompleto ang 1,798 projects sa itinakdang contract time o completion date, habang ang 413 na iba pa na nagkakahalaga ng P27.47 bilyong piso ay sinuspinde.
Tinuran pa rin ng COA na ang 90 DPWH projects na nagkakahalaga ng P5.1 bilyong piso ay terminated o para sa terminasyon habang ang 94 proyekto naman na nagkakahalaga ng P3.55 bilyong piso ay hindi nasimulan noong nasabing taon.
“These over 2,300 projects cover locally-funded infrastructure projects, school buildings, and Farm-to-Market Roads (FMR),” ayon sa COA.
“Perusal of the report on the status of projects showed that significant delays in the implementation of the projects were caused by numerous suspension orders, time extensions and variation orders issued by the DPWH offices,” ang sinabi ng COA sa report nito.
Inisa-isa naman ng DPWH sa COA ang mga dahilan ng pagkaantala ng mga proyekto kung saan kabilang dito ang COVID 19 pandemic.
Ayon sa COA, ang mga dahilan ng DPWH para sa pagkaantala ng mga proyekto ay “not all valid.”
“Except for the COVID-19 pandemic and adverse weather conditions, the other identified causes of the delay in the implementation of infrastructure projects reflect the inadequacy of planning, supervision and monitoring of management relative to the project implementation,” ayon sa COA.
“With the long years of exposure and experience of the DPWH in the implementation of infrastructure projects, adequate planning should have been considered regarding problems in RROW and conditions over the project location which are the perennial causes of the delays in the implementation of projects,” dagdag na pahayag nito sabay sabing “the causes or reasons of project delays need to be fully and immediately addressed by instituting remedial measures provided under DPWH Department Order No. 193.”
Ito’y upang maaiwasan ang “further extension” ng project implementation period at posibleng mangyari na madagdagan ang project costs, at tiyakin ang napapanahong delivery of services at hinahangad na benepisyo para sa “intended users o beneficiaries.” Kris Jose
