Cracking down on erring Baguio contractors

EDITORIAL

Substandard contract projects are known to be done by erring contractors nationwide.

In Baguio City, two of six projects recently inspected by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and City Administrator engineer Bonifacio Dela Peña received a failed mark from the two officials. The inspections were part of new procedure to ensure quality of infrastructure projects in the city

Following this, Magalong warned 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. 

Magalong and Dela Peña recently made two rounds of inspections covering six projects that are about to the 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 program 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

This, as Magalong called on the City Building and Architecture Office and City Engineering Office to upgrade the city’s standards on the designs and materials for all city government-funded horizontal and vertical projects being implemented in the city.

This after the mayor expressed disappointment over the outcome of some of the projects he inspected with Dela Peña which fell short of the standards. 

Magalong said no project using public funds will be approved unless these meet contract specifications to the letter however it was found out that for some projects, it was the inferior program of work that is to blame. 

Together with Dela Peña, the mayor led a team composed of representatives from the city engineering office, city buildings and architects office, police personnel and other concerned departments to inspect the construction of a day care center at San Antonio Village, Aurora Hill together with barangay officials.

Upon inspection of the project that just completed its first phase of construction worth nearly P1 million according to CBAO representatives,  Magalong expressed his disappointment on its roughshod and below par appearance that he said does not meet the standards for a day care center. 

The mayor’s observation was seconded by dela Pena who is a civil engineer by profession.

Magalong laid part of the blame on government offices tasked to enforce the strict implementation of projects like the CEO and CBAO and challenged them to improve the programs of work and project specifications.

He gave the same stern warning to contractors that they will be blacklisted and legal proceedings may even be made against them if they do not level up their work and meet contract specifications and standards.

 The mayor said under his administration, there will be no “under-the-table” and other shenanigans and that he will continue to conduct surprise inspections of government projects to make sure that these are up to standards and of good quality.

             The new city government’s policy of ensuring that contract projects in the city should be done properly and up to standards is a good start in ensuring public safety for city folks and visitors