CEBU, Philippines - To hasten the implementation of road concreting projects, the Cebu City Government will be turning over the P100 million funds to the barangays where the projects will be implemented.
But city officials assured that even if the implementation will be entrusted to the barangays, they will be closely monitored to avoid another fiasco.
“We will make sure that what happened before will not happen again. The engineering department will closely monitor the implementation in the barangay level,” said Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias, chairman of the council’s committee on infrastructure.
Cabarrubias was referring to a past controversy in the implementation of projects by some barangays, mostly in the south district.
Irregularities were found in the implementation of the projects that were undertaken by E. M. Arante Construction.
Several projects were won in the bidding by E.M. Arante Construction but some of these projects were found to be substandard when inspected by a team of engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The defects, however, were minor and have already been corrected by the said contractor.
In the investigation conducted by the city government, it was found that the irregularities stemmed from the barangay officials’ lack of knowledge in implementing major projects.
The result of the investigation was submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas which is now conducting a thorough investigation on the matter.
Cabarrubias said that the P100 million budget for road concreting will all be in the mountain barangays. — (FREEMAN)