COA to Catbalogan City: Consider termination, blacklisting of contractors of delayed P144M projects

GOVERNMENT auditors have recommended that the Catbalogan City government in Samar look at the possible termination of the contract and blacklisting of the contractors of the P139.62 million Sky City Multi-Purpose Complex and the P5 million concreting of the Barangay San Andres farm-to-market road (FMR) over substantial delays.

Auditors revealed the multi-purpose was supposed to be completed as of February 18, 2023 while the FMR had a target date of January 27, 2024, yet neither was finished on time.

Under the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Circular No. 03-2019, a negative slippage (delay) of five percent is supposed to earn a contractor a warning with a requirement to submit a detailed catch-up program.

Once the negative slippage hits 10 percent, the contractor gets a final warning and a chance to submit a revised catch-up plan with weekly physical targets.

The circular mandates that the procuring entity initiate termination of the contract or takeover of the ongoing work once the negative slippage marks 15 percent or higher.

“The “Establishment of Multi-Purpose Complex, Sky City” project was started on February 18, 2022, and was expected to be completed in 365 days. However, upon reviewing the quarterly reports … it was found that the project was still classified as ‘ongoing’ with a completion percentage of only 19.75 percent. Consequently, the project was already delayed by 333 days by year-end,” the audit team said.

The San Andres FMR concreting project had a target completion of 60 days but had incurred delays of 33 days with no equipment deployed and materials stockpiled at the site.

The audit team said the calibrated actions based on the GPPB Circular have not been implemented as confirmed by the acting City Engineer in an interview.

“The non-implementation of the required calibrated actions in response to delays in project implementation exposes the city to possible project cost overruns and impedes the realization of socio-economic benefits for the communities,” the audit team said.

In its reply to the audit observations, the city government agreed to the recommendation of the audit team to evaluate the projects for possible termination of