EDITORIAL - Past completion date

The season of regular flooding is over, but it shouldn’t mean losing focus on flood control projects. The dry season is a better time for assessing the efficiency of the projects, when people aren’t busy responding to weather-related emergencies.

Following the devastation unleashed by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine last month, questions were raised on the status of flood control projects particularly in the Bicol Region. Kristine brought what weather scientists described as the highest 24-hour rainfall recorded in the region since the 1920s. It spawned the worst flooding in Bicol since 1969, with scenes in Naga City reminiscent of those in Metro Manila at the height of Tropical Storm Ondoy in September 2009. Kristine left at least 162 dead, with 22 missing.

The Commission on Audit, in its annual audit report for 2023 on the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, cited delayed or unimplemented flood control projects in the National Capital Region, where residents have also been suffering from regular torrential flooding. The COA report, released last Dec. 1, said that of 58 projects under phase one of the MMDA’s Metro Manila Flood Management program, 22 with total funding of P510.58 million were already past their completion date by 310 days as of end-2023.

Another 29 flood control projects, with total fund allocations of P371.029 million, remain unimplemented “due to non-observance of the conduct of early-procurement activities and cancellation of projects,” the COA audit report said. Funds for the projects are sourced mostly from loans, so the delays have already cost the government P32.9 million in commitment fees from 2018 to 2023, the COA said.

State auditors attributed the delays to “poor strategies in monitoring and implementation of programs and projects” by the MMDA. The COA also cited the MMDA’s failure to conduct early procurement of goods and services – a problem seen in 39 of the projects.

The MMDA, in a reply to the audit report, said the completion dates for 22 projects were extended for valid reasons. It said the requests for extensions were “mainly due to custom clearances, port congestion, changes of design and specifications for custom-made goods, reconceptualization, changing weather conditions, time suspensions and variation orders.” But the COA, in a rejoinder, said the extension of the target completion dates “may be an indication of ineffective planning.”

This issue does not even include the problems of corruption and “ghost” or non-existent flood control projects that have plagued efforts to ease the floods that hit much of the country regularly. The audit report on the MMDA provides some guidance on what can be done to address the problems and improve flood control.