P957-M DA projects delayed

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is delinquent on its major projects that goes against a directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to Cabinet officials to avoid delays in their implementation.

Several DA projects are way past their completion date, according to a Commission on Audit (CoA) report.

“Out of the 49 SP[subprojects] approved for implementation during the year costing P3.756 billion, 16 SP costing P1.124 billion were targeted for completion, in which only four SP were completed and the remaining

12 SP costing P957.678 million were not yet completed as of year-end,” according to the CoA report.

The unfinished projects included farm-to-markets roads (FMR) in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (CALABARZON) and Bicol regions.

The CALABARZON and Bicol projects were under the Intensified Building-Up of Infrastracture and Logistics for Development (IBuild) program.

“Any delay of implementation will also result in the delay of project completion, thereby depriving the intended users of the immediate benefits that will be derived therefrom,” the CoA said.