BAGUIO CITY – Public Works Secretary Mark Villar warned all erring public works contractors in the different parts of the Cordillera the agency will not hesitate in blacklisting them if their works will not pass the prescribed standards of infrastructure projects pursuant to project specifications and programs of work.
Villar, who visited the Cordillera prior and after the Tropical Cyclone Ompong, claimed the agency is now implementing a new monitoring system on the performance of public works contractors around the country to monitor and identify erring contractors, thus, the imposition of the necessary sanctions against them that range from the suspension of their participation in the implementation of future infrastructure projects up to their blacklisting which means that they will no longer be allowed to work with the government in the implementation of funded public works projects in the different parts of the country.
“We are issuing stern warning against erring contractors not only in the Cordillera but also in other parts of the country because the government cannot afford to sacrifice the quality of major infrastructure projects just to satisfy the desire of project implementers to have bigger income from implementing substandard projects which will not be beneficial to the people,” Secretary Villar stressed.
The DPWH official explained he will look into reports from stakeholders in the region that there are only a few selected contractors who are being awarded to implement major infrastructure projects despite unresolved questions on their previous implemented projects aside from the fact that some of their projects incurred serious negative slippages beyond correction regionwide.
According to him, provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act mandates all public works contractors who have incurred a slippage of negative 15 percent in the implementation of their projects to prepare the required catch-up plans to help improve the status of implementation of their projects.
However, he pointed out that if the contractors are not able to accomplish their catch-up plans, their contracts will be cancelled or terminated and they will be subsequently blacklisted thereby perpetually banning them from participating in the prosecution of government projects in their places.
Secretary Villar directed all district and regional offices of the agency to make sure that contractors implementing public works projects regionwide have very satisfactory performances in the previous implementation of their awarded projects to guarantee the quality of infrastructure projects to be implemented will not be compromised and that an investigation will also be done on why some contractors with serious negative slippages were awarded multi-million projects for implementation this year.
He also will look into the possibility that there are some erring DPWH officials who are in cahoots with poor performing contractors for the latter to be issued the necessary certification of good performance in the implementation of their projects that allow them to participate in bidding of future funded projects in the different parts of the region. By HENT
