DPWH secretary sets crackdown against errant contractors

ORMOC CITY - Secretary Rogelio Singson of the Department of Public Works and Highways said the crackdown against favored but erring contractors of the past Arroyo administration has started.

These contractors are however not blacklisted yet, but are not allowed to get more contracts until their backlogs are finished, Singson told The Freeman when he was in Ormoc lately.

Singson said the DPWH has identified the top ten contractors who got the lion's share of P10.5-billion of public infrastructure contracts awarded during the culminating period of the Arroyo administration.

He said he was aware of the complaints from citizens that most of these contracts were left idle and unfinished, and some were even "ghost projects," adding that at least one of these contractors is based in Leyte province.

"We are not blacklisting them yet, but we are not allowing those with backlogs to join in future biddings," he said, adding that he would rather let them finish whatever pending projects so that the advance payments they might have gotten would not be wasted.

Singson said he is trying to put DPWH in order, as ordered by President P.Noy Aquino. For the July to December 2010 period alone, the government has already saved the country around P12-billion by minimizing graft, he said.

Part of the housecleaning was to reorganize district engineering offices and, of the country's more than 200 districts, only 10 district engineers remained in their original positions, he said.

He said that, upon his return to Manila, he will implement a 6-month suspension order by the Ombudsman against a particular district office which includes the district engineer, the assistant up to middle level executive posts.

"Mahirap ang trabaho ko", he said, as he admitted that his life might be endangered for stepping on the shoes of some DPWH top guns, who have their own "boys' club," one of whom is an undersecretary who he said has been known to be a padrino of several erring contractors. — (FREEMAN)