BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered concerned departments of the local government to review the city’s annual investment plan (AIP) to ensure the implementation of all projects that were provided funding to improve the city’s overall performance in the implementation of funded projects.
The local chief executive expressed disappointment over the recent report of the Commission on Audit (COA) which stated among others that the local government was only able to implement 27 percent of the projects funded under the 2016 plan, saying that there is a need for the concerned departments to review the plan and work out the implementation of the remaining projects to improve the city’s overall performance in project implementation.
He underscored that the funded projects which were not implemented for several years should already be reverted to the general fund and realigned for other priority development projects of the barangays and the local government that must be given utmost attention at this time.
Aside from the problems the identified projects sites for those funded under the AIP, other reasons for the non-implementation include the fact that there are no takers when the projects are bid out, the insufficient funding for the identified priority project and the tedious process once the project is subjected to the administration procedures.
Domogan claimed the failure of the local government to fully implemented funded projects under the annual budget deprives the people in the barangays the chance to have developed communities apart from the improvement of delivery of services for the benefit of the general public.
“We need to review the identified priority projects to ascertain which among these can still be implemented or abandoned for which funds the said projects will be realigned for other projects of the city. We should now be aggressive in the implementation of our projects or else, we will be again be left behind in terms of our competitiveness in the implementation of development projects,” Domogan stressed.
He added there are other high impact development projects that are in the pipeline that can use realigned funds from unimplemented projects as these do not have any serious problems so that there will be consistent implementation of projects so as not to shortchange the taxpayers who religiously pay their taxes to the local government.
He also urged the members of the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to fastrack the bidding of projects submitted to them for public bidding to reduce the piling up of projects in the BAC that are not yet scheduled for bidding for various reasons, saying that there is a need for the projects to be implemented to help improve the overall condition of the different infrastructures in the city.
By Dexter A. See
