Public works accomplishment up 60%

Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar is keen on identifying the problem of delayed infrastructure project implementation in the country.

Villar particularly cited reports on the DPWH not having effectively managed its resources as evidenced by its “low physical delivery” of projects based on findings by the Commission on Audit (CoA).

But he argued that if projects started by previous year were included, the accomplishment rate would ramp up to around 60 percent.

“Our disbursement is comprised of current projects and carry-overs from the previous year,” said Villar, who also acknowledged that some contractors were delayed in delivering on their DPWH commitments.

He said the agency previously identified and warned 43 contractors who are behind in the delivery of some 400 projects and that the group risk getting blacklisted.

“When we took over, it was only at 50 percent and we did some improvement on the projects,” Villar said.

The CoA reported the DPWH spent only 34 percent of its P662.8-billion budget in 2017. Also, while the agency obligated 92 percent, or P610.9 billion, only P222.7 billion was disbursed.

“This indicates that the management was not able to effectively manage the increasing amount of funds entrusted to the agency due to low physical delivery of target project and activities,” the report said.

The state auditors attributed the agency’s low budget disbursement to over 3,000 delayed or non-implemented infrastructure projects worth around P73.4 billion.

A total 2,334 projects worth P62.6 billion were not completed last year; 135 projects worth P6.1 billion were suspended; 15 projects worth P2.1 billion were terminated and 815 projects worth P2.6 billion were not implemented, the CoA said.

The CoA blamed delayed project site approval, late or non-issuance of permits from concerned agencies, right-of-way issues, late release of funds, unworkable weather conditions and insufficiency of equipment as reasons.

State auditors said these problems were not new and should not have recurred had the DPWH followed their previous recommendations to conduct detailed engineering and strict project monitoring and coordination.