BAGUIO CITY – Anti-corruption advocates in the region requested Public Works Secretary Mark Villar to conduct an investigation on the continuous award of multi-million infrastructure projects to a contractor with alleged questionable track record in the construction industry.
In his letter addressed to Secretary Villar dated February 21, 2020, questioned the award of new multi-million peso worth of infrastructure projects to alleged bad performing contractors which is in violation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9184 or the Government Procurement Act.
He claimed that the DPWH awarded to JAVEN General Contracting and Engineering Services a P44 million project along the Baguio-Bauang Road, otherwise known as the Quirino Highway, despite existing questions on the previous projects that he implemented in other district offices in the region.
Attached to the complaint letter is a letter dated November 11, 2019 reminding the DPWH of Section 34.3 of RA 9184; a copy of the Ombudsman complaint against the TWG members of the DPWH-MPDEO because of the violations of the said contractor joint venture; a copy of the petition for special audit on the project of JAVEN in the DPWH-MPDEO by Mr. Juniper Dominguez and a copy of the letter of Mr. Dominguez to the COA-CAR regional director for the conduct of onsite auditing of the P200 million re-blocking project of JAVEN joint venture which contract expired on August 2018 that had more or less 50 percent accomplishment with obvious massive scaling, holes and cracks.
However, he disclosed that to date, the very visible defects of the project were not actually corrected by the said contractor and that the same is not 100 percent complete pursuant to approved plans and specifications.
According to him, the continuous award of projects being done by the DPWH to bad performing contractors is resulting to the wastage of public money, thus, the need to investigate the district offices prioritizing the award of projects to bad performing contractors and institute the appropriate measures against erring DPWH officials for their failure to ensure that the implementation of projects will be done by competent contractors who know how to value the importance of the infrastructure projects to the populace.
He asserted that he was constrained to file the complaint against the alleged erring contractor and the concerned DPWH officials in Mountain Province and Baguio City because despite the obvious blatant inability of the contractor to complete the awarded projects, JAVEN General Contracting and Engineering Services continues to be awarded multi-million projects in some district offices which is contrary to the explicit provisions of the procurement law.
The complainant expressed optimism that the Secretary will give course to the complaint against the erring contract knowing for a fact that he is a staunch advocate of good governance being part of the present administration which had launched an all-out campaign against graft and corruption in the bureaucracy and that he firmly supports the aforesaid cause that is why they are directly bringing their complaints to his attention for appropriate action.
By Hent
