Pending project inspections: City Hall withholding contractor payments

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Accounting Office is temporarily withholding all payments due to contractors pending the ongoing investigation and inspection of all barangay projects implemented using the city's money given as aid to the barangays.

The city government, with the help of engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways Quality Assurance Unit in Manila who arrived here last Monday, is currently conducting inspections in 36 barangays with completed or ongoing projects.

Companies contracted to work in these projects under investigation will have to wait a week or so before the accounting office issues an Accounting Advice that is a prerequisite for the bank to release the payment.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the council's committee on budget and finance, stressed that payments, not only for the E.M. Arante Construction but to all con-tractors, will be withheld so that the city can still run after them should engineers find out that infrastructures are substandard.

They started their inspection yesterday beginning with the priority barangays or those areas declared by the Department of Engineering and Public Works as hotspots.

The projects being investigated are worth over P200 million, 80 percent of which was awarded to E.M. Arante Construction.

The DPWH team will investigate the technical side to take up to three days. They will then submit their findings and recommendations to the city government who will decide on which appropriate action to take.

Daluz said that the city may file a criminal case against the contractor, breach of contract and for damages. They will also determine later what sanction may be im-posed against the trustees of the funds, which are the barangays.

They can also demand the erring contractors to rectify defective works at no expense to the city government.

Mayor Michael Rama has asked city administrator Jose Marie Poblete to write a letter to the Office of the Ombudsman to bring the matter to their attention so they can take appropriate action.

Poblete said that the city is not demanding an investigation from the Ombudsman but will let the anti-graft body to decide if they should act on this case.

Rama will also ask the Commission on Audit to speed up their investigation. COA is doing its own investigation of the transactions after learning about some irregularities in the bidding process.

COA said that barangays did not publish in the newspapers its invitation to bid that is supposedly required under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

But Daluz said that RA 9184 is not applicable to barangay Bids and Awards Committee because under the law, at least a member of BAC must be a permanent em-ployee.

There is not a single permanent employee at the barangay level so its BAC consists of the councilmen and COA among others.

To ensure that the aid to barangays is regulated and monitored and the quality of projects maintained, Rama shall soon implement new guidelines to govern the release of funds.

Poblete said that one of the new policies is the manner through which the money is released. If before the city release the aid at once, they will now release only a por-tion depending on what has been accomplished by the contractor.

This is called progressive billing where in the city will only release the payment for the portion that has been accomplished and duly inspected by the city engineers.

Barangays may also tap the DEPW to conduct the regular inspection of the projects. (FREEMAN)