COA: Mountain Province LGU awarded projects to banned firm

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the provincial government of Mountain Province for awarding two irrigation projects to a blacklisted construction firm.

In its 2023 annual audit report, the COA said that while the provincial government was able to rebid and award the projects to a new contractor, the incident could have been avoided.

“The failure to conduct a thorough post-qualification check during procurement activities resulted in the award of two projects with total contract cost of P8.315 million for the implementation of small-scale irrigation projects received from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to a blacklisted construction firm,” the audit report read.

COA records show that the provincial government received P10.157 million from the DA for the implementation of the irrigation projects.

Two of the projects worth P4.950 million and P3.366 million involved the construction of the Mayasen diversion dam and Surnangan irrigation canal, respectively.

Contracts for both projects, which were awarded to ADL General Construction, were rebid and awarded to a new contractor, Tawid Builders Corp., in August 2023.

Inquiry by the audit team bared that the provincial government’s bids and awards committee (BAC) belatedly learned that ADL was among the blacklisted contractors.

The firm was blacklisted over its previous failure to comply with contractual obligations and written lawful instruction of the procuring entity, poor performance or unsatisfactory quality and progress of work as well as failure to meet the approved specifications for quality of materials and workmanship.

The provincial BAC said it learned that ADL was blacklisted only when the Government Procurement Policy Board system did not accept its name for another contract.

The COA reminded the provincial government to be more diligent in reviewing the qualification of bidders.

It said similar incidents “may result in a possible non-performance of the contractor’s obligation as contained in the contract agreement to the disadvantage of the provincial government.”

The COA said the provincial BAC has committed to regularly check the consolidated blacklisting report before issuing any notice of award of contracts to avoid a similar incident.