Senator Robin Padilla on Thursday told the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to go after private contractors who delivered substandard school buildings and other government infrastructure projects.
For his part, Sen. Francis Tolentino noted the Gapan school cited by Padilla may not be an isolated case as he saw many damaged infrastructures in Gen. Tinio and San Leonardo in Nueva Ecija a week after the typhoon hit. He advised the DPWH to inspect these areas.
During the Senate hearing on the proposed P718.360 billion 2023 budget for the DPWH, Secretary Manuel Bonoan gave assurance to address the flooding problem in Bulacan province which was heavily inundated at the height of the recent typhoon Karding.
Padilla cited in particular the dismal state of a public school in Gapan, Nueva Ecija which was heavily damaged by Karding.
He noted that nearby houses were not as affected by the typhoon.
“Do we have any way to know if the materials used were substandard? It is impossible that nearby houses were not as affected as the school, which was supposed to have been designed by the best. Is there anyone checking them?” he asked.
“Look at the school’s roof, it’s as if Superman blew it off – it’s gone,” he added.
Bonoan said public projects have a one-year warranty whereby erring contractors may be blacklisted. Padilla asked: “If we find anomalies, can we slap the wrongdoers?”
Bonoan agreed such cases must be investigated because it is baffling that only one school was destroyed in the area.
“We cannot tolerate the use of substandard materials,” he said.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo said the DPWH should require contractors P1 million liability insurance for accidental death and injury of workers.
He said the amount of insurance coverage should be increased as the value of project increases.
Bonoan committed to look into ways to incorporate said P1-million liability insurance to the current policy.
Tulfo also asked Bonoan to stop the current practice of sub-contracting infrastructure projects which often results to substandard roads that are prone to accidents.
In current sub-contracting practice, he said the principal contractor who won the bidding would simply transfer the implementation and construction of the project to a smaller contractor lacking financial and technical capability.
The principal contractor would get a cut from the project price by only using his license, or in Tulfo’s term, “laway lang.”
In some cases, Tulfo recalled that the sub-contractor would again transfer the project to another smaller sub-contractor.
In effect, the budget available for the third contractor would be small and not enough to make quality projects.
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva confronted DPWH officials over the almost 50,000 contractual employees of the agency.
He said that based on the data of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), there are 22,457 job orders and contracts of service in the agency.
This number even doubled to 49,726, Villanueva said.
Bonoan said the matter was part of the ‘continuing policy’ that evolved in the rationalization plan which was being implemented since 2012.
Bonoan also noted that the job orders and contracts of service were part of the routine maintenance program of the agency wherein workers are being outsourced.
He also said that if the agency encountered problems with the private sector regarding their projects, they get job order to fill up the lack in manpower.
“This would guarantee that DPWH major projects like roads, buildings and other facilities would be finished.
Villanueva also inquired into the unfilled positions at the DPWH until 2023 and called for immediate action on this issue.
Citing a Commission on Audit report, Tolentino said the DPWH was unable to establish the technical viability of projects, resulting in delayed completion and non-implementation of 3,440 infrastructure projects worth around P255 billion.
He said there were also 437 projects amounting to P10.9 billion that were not started at all as well as 12 foreign-assisted projects that were restructured.
In response, DPWH Secretary Manny Bonoan said there were “intervening reasons” behind the delay of the projects.
“There have been projects included in the 2021 budget that needed to be— we call for later release and this has to be approved by the Office of the President. It took some time for some of these projects to be processed and approved,” Bonoan said during the Finance committee hearing.
Further, he said, there were also “operational bottlenecks” for the final execution of the projects.
Tolentino said operational bottlenecks mentioned may be “sourced” from the internal failure to establish the technical viability of the projects.
“I think this is correct because many of the projects as we noted, actually, these projects were actually incorporated in the budget without a preliminary assessment from the start,” he said.
“So it took some time in the department to make the necessary preliminary engineering activities that are needed for actual contract execution,” he added.
Due to this, Tolentino asked the DPWH if it is “safe to say that [the country] does not have a good planning office.”
Bonoan later assured the senator that the DPWH will have a stricter process for planning.
“I would not venture to say of the projects in 2021, but I can assure the good senator that under my watch, I think we will have a more and stricter process of… the planning,” he said.
The DPWH secretary also said that an increase in its budget will address the COA findings.
“I can assure you that with this, with the budget that we are asking now for preliminary feasibility study and preliminary engineering will substantially address the final preparation of our projects in 2023,” Bonoan said.
Meanwhile, Tolentino said that P1.4 billion remained unobligated and undisbursed under the department’s 2021 budget.
The DPWH said that it obligated P5.4 billion out of the P5.5 billion quick response fund in 2021.
It said it has also disbursed P4.2 billion as of August 2022, leaving only P1.3 billion.
The DPWH said it is working on disbursing the remaining funds before the end of the year.