BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City Engineering Office to immediately conduct an inventory of all infrastructure projects being implemented by the city government and the district and regional offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to ensure that these comply with the basic rules and regulations in the implementation of publicly-funded projects.
The city chief executive expressed disappointment over reports from residents that aside from the snail-paced implementation of major infrastructure projects, contractors have failed to install the necessary project billboards informing the public about the projects being implemented in their places.
“We have to compel our contractors to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations prescribed in their contracts to implement their awarded projects. We cannot understand why contractors dig up project sites and then leave the areas unattended for a long time even if they witness the inconveniences caused by the dug-up areas to the motoring and commuting public,” Domogan stressed.
He also directed the City Engineer to make a report on who are the contractors of abandoned project sites and those who refuse to install the appropriate billboards so that the local government can institute the appropriate measures against the erring contractors that can eventually lead to their blacklisting as project implementors to teach them a lesson not to belittle the concerned government agencies and the city in the implementation of the projects.
According to him, the installation of project billboards containing the name of the project, project duration, project cost, the contractor among others is one of the major requirements that contractors must put in place in their project sites to inform the public about the project being implemented in their places.
He said the inventory will include even the projects being implemented by the district and regional offices of the DPWH and these offices will be provided with a copy of the report for them to know those erring contractors who refuse to comply with the basic project implementation requirements and it will now be up to the DPWH officials to penalize the hard headed contractors who are only interested in what they earn from the project but not the convenience of the public.
He criticized some public works contractors implementing various infrastructure projects in the different parts of the city for their alleged poor work performance as they are simply taking their own sweet time in completing their works even if they see that the motoring and commuting public are suffering from the unattended diggings they made.
He urged barangay officials to impose their powers over these erring contractors to install the necessary billboards in their project sites to serve as information to the public on what kind of contractor is doing the works in their areas.
By Dexter A. See
