State auditors have flagged the local government over extensive delays and engineering deficiencies in the construction of the Cebu City Medical Center, a project that has already cost P1.13 billion.

The findings, detailed in the Commission on Audit’s (CoA) 2025 Annual Audit Report, highlighted prolonged construction delays, contract anomalies, and structural defects that prevented state auditors from completing a comprehensive technical evaluation.

The hospital reconstruction is currently the city’s largest and longest-running infrastructure project. The facility has remained unfinished for over a decade after the 2013 Bohol earthquake rendered the old hospital building structurally unsafe.

According to the audit agency, “significant implementation delays” were driven by flaws in detailed engineering activities, poorly documented contract time extensions, and a failure by local authorities to submit required technical documents.

Auditors also noted that multiple contract phases had been terminated.

The audit report reviewed five infrastructure contracts linked to the proposed medical center. As of 31 December 2025, cumulative project costs reached P1,130,186,007 against an overall total contract value of P1,904,225,845.

Auditors reported that the city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works failed to submit crucial paperwork required for technical validation across Phases I and II, as well as for masonry, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection installations on the fifth and sixth floors.

For Phase III, the commission ordered city officials to justify a 574-day project suspension and to recover any overpayments made to contractors. For Phase IV, city engineers were directed to explain excess items not included in the original bill of quantities, clarify related payments, and account for installed systems that are reportedly nonfunctional.

The commission has instructed the city government to produce an approved master plan that details specific work assignments by construction phase, along with a comprehensive program of works and estimates.

Auditors also demanded an explanation as to why severe implementation errors were not caught during the initial engineering design stages.