TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Lower Kalinga District Engineering Office (LKDEO) reported more than 36 percent accomplishment in the implementation of various projects funded under the regular infrastructure fund bid out by the office covering various road sections, bridges, and other local infrastructure projects.
Engr. Ireneo S. Gallato, LKDEO district engineer, said this accomplishment is so far the highest among the different district offices regionwide for the first five months of this year, saying that the agency remains aggressive in monitoring the compliance of contractors in accomplishing their prescribed works.
Last April, the LKDEO reported having an accomplishment of 22 percent in the implementation of their bid out projects under the P630 million regular infrastructure funds that were downloaded to the agency for the programmed infrastructure projects this year.
“We are constantly reminding our contractors to strictly adhere to the schedule of work and accomplishment to prevent them from incurring unjustifiable slippages in their projects for us to sustain our accomplishment in the implementation of our funded projects,” Gallato stressed.
For this year, the LKDEO provided some P630 million worth of various infrastructure projects to be implemented and monitored by the district office while more than P415 million worth of other local infrastructure projects will be implemented and monitored by the Cordillera office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-CAR).
The district engineer pointed out he was able to dispatch his personnel to monitor the compliance of contractors to the prescribed time frame in the completion of their works so that there will be no complications in the future.
However, Gallato explained there are justifiable reasons when projects will be allowed to suspend work and for contractors to be granted a time extension to be computed against the prescribed schedule of work, thus, contractors must be vigilant in submitting their reports subject to evaluation and validation by their technical personnel.
According to him, contractors had been reminded to take advantage of the good weather to complete their projects and not wait for the onslaught of the rainy days which might result to frequent suspension of works by the contractors because of the serious delays that will be caused by the frequent afternoon rains that will hit the province.
Kalinga remains a first-class district having a total length of over 250 kilometers of national roads in Tabuk City and the towns of Pinukpuk and Rizal.
Gallato attributed the accomplishment of the agency to the cooperation of the contractors in the implementation of their awarded projects, the support of provincial, city, municipal and barangay officials to the projects implemented in their areas of jurisdiction by facilitating the immediate resolution of potential road-right-of-way conflicts and the resilience of the LKDEO personnel in making sure that funded projects are prosecuted pursuant to project standards and specifications.
By HENT