Marinduque State College paid contractors full P162M for 3 unfinished buildings

THE Marinduque State College (MSC) released the full payment of P162.11 million and refunded P41.63 million in retention fees to private contractors of three multi-story buildings in 2023 despite knowing that all the structures were still unfinished.

The 2023 audit report of MSC released last May 3 identified the buildings as the P73.42 million Administration Building, the P49.22 million five-story Engineering Building, and the P39.46 million three-story Skills Laboratory Building for BS Nursing. All three projects include both build and design costs.

“The projects were already fully paid and retention fees were refunded to the contractor in December 2023. However, upon review of the submitted Report on Government Projects …as of CY 2023, it was found that the said infrastructure projects were not yet completed,” the audit team revealed.

Onsite inspection by the auditors and officials of the Physical Plant Management Office (PPMO) last March 7, 2024 showed the Administration Building was only 84.63 percent complete while the Skills Lab Building for BS Nursing was 88.51 percent.

On the other hand, the Engineering Building was only just halfway finished at 60.57 percent.

Worse, a review of the documents on the project progress showed the buildings were already behind schedule based on the contract timetable.

The audit said the Administration Building and the Skills Lab Building were supposed to have been finished by September 2023 while the Engineering Building had a December 28, 2023 deadline.

“Despite the incurrence of delays and negative slippages, the concerned agency officials did not undertake the required remedial measures,” the Commission on Audit said.

Under the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act and the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Circular No. 03-2019, a contractor is supposed to receive a final warning when negative slippage on a project hits 10 percent.

The same rules say that a negative slippage of 15 percent empowers the government agency to initiate the termination of the contract or takeover of the remaining work.

If these rules were strictly applied, the contracts on