Shoddy bridge supplier gets new gov't contract

This lucky bridge supplier has bagged another huge government deal — when it should be banned for sloppy work that cost taxpayers many billion-pesos.

British entity Balfour Cleveland — aka Balfour Beatty-Cleveland, aka Balfour Cleveland Consortiums, aka Cleveland Balfour, aka Cleveland Bridge UK Limited — previously incurred a cost overrun of P5.4 billion, during seven years of bridge contracting.

Instead of being blacklisted for lousing up, it only changed its name to Cleveland Bridge UK Limited so it can join a new bridges program. This is according to sources inside the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The DPWH is to repair 133 bridges across the land for P8.4 billion, under the National Roads Bridge Replacement Project. The U.K. will lend part of the fund. The Philippines is to pitch in P650 million, approved by the National Economic and Development Authority. To be sourced domestically, the counterpart will be inserted in the 2013 national budget.

Cleveland Bridge UK Limited one of nine bridge suppliers to the Philippines, the sole for U.K.-financed works. With the NEDA approval of the U.K. loan, the supplier will proceed to sign a contract with the DPWH.

Ignored was Cleveland Balfour’s past cost overrun of P5.4 billion. If the Senate is un-inclined to investigate the setback to taxpayers, then maybe the House of Representatives should, as it peruses the 2013 budget.

The Commission on Audit (COA) says delays in the government’s Special Bridges Project (SBP) from 2001 to 2007 cost taxpayers more than P10 billion. This was due to work delays that, in turn, pushed up the loan interests and service fees. In particular, a DPWH paper states, taxpayers paid P5.431 billion for one project of Balfour Cleveland that initially was tagged P2.4 billion, also partly U.K.-funded. The DPWH reports that Balfour Cleveland’s overrun of P3.032 billion more than doubled the original price.

A COA tabulation of bridge contractors tells a grim story. Design and process errors delayed the construction works, swelling the project costs. In 2004 the Pasil Bridge in Kalinga collapsed while being built by Balfour Cleveland. The British firm and its subcontractor blamed each other for it.

Balfour Cleveland’s contract provisions were onerous. A letter to newspapers by one Grahame Coles, Attorney in Fact (Philippines), so showed. To quote: “The BCC (Balfour Cleveland Consortium) portion of the projects covered under the U.K. assisted ODA funding was for design, supply of steel superstructures and advisory services with technical support and transfer of technology only.”

In effect, it was an incomplete solution in itself. As the letter stated: “The Philippine Government was 100 percent responsible for the design, supply and installation and funding of the civil works portion, and therefore this did not form any part of the foreign loan or BCC contract.”

Another provision in the BCC contract was a 10-percent allowance for profit on variation orders. VOs, changes to the project due to new conditions, generally occur. But the guarantee of 10-percent margin meant the supplier did not care if the project was completed on time, according to the DPWH insiders. Nor was it committed to stick to the earlier contracted price.

COA wants the DPWH to ban contractors with questionable performance records. Apart from debarment, it says the DPWH should collect damages from defaulting suppliers.

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A reminder from reader P. Villanueva of Tondo, Manila: “Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is appalled that Rico E. Puno has five relatives in government. In the last half of the past administration Miriam had a husband as DILG USec, a brother as ambassador, a sister as Commissioner on Higher Education, a son and two cousins in Congress, a niece as Philippine National Construction Co. chairperson, a nephew as Philippine National Railways chairman, and three cousins at the Customs Bureau, the Land Transportation Office, and as presidential adviser for Region VI. Eleven!”

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A group of birdwatchers were scouring the La Mesa EcoPark in Quezon City recently for rare birds. Specifically the members of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines were aiming to photograph the Red-Bellied Pitta (Pitta erythrogaster, Kong-kong in Tagalog). Instead, they stumbled upon the scarcer Ashy Thrush (Zoothera cinerea, a kind of pipit). Word of the find immediately spread among birdwatchers.

The Ashy Thrush they found in the 33-hectare public park within the La Mesa watershed was not alone. It was feeding three fledglings in a nest up a tree. Ashy Thrush is a small, elusive ground-dweller who natural habitat is tropical moist lowland and mountain forests. It is so uncommon, says Maibelle Aure of ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, that the Wild Bird Club recorded only 56 sightings from 2004 to 2009. And this was in only seven sites, including Mt. Makiling, Laguna.

A friend, award-winning poet Reuel Aguila, proudly photo’d an Ashy Thrush recently at La Mesa. Other rare birds there are the Emerald Dove, Scaly-Breasted Munia, Grey-Backed Tailorbird, and Mangrove Blue Flycatcher. If only there were more eco-parks in the big city.

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