CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government failed to implement at least P3 billion worth of programs and infrastructure projects since 2010 despite having an approved budget from the City Council.
The Department of Engineering and Public Works blamed the backlogs of unimplemented projects to the lack of the needed civil engineers to prepare the programs of works and estimates.
At present, the DEPW only have 10 civil engineers. It was not immediately known how many was the needed civil engineers under the DEPW plantilla of positions.
The problem was brought up during the budget meeting attended by Mayor Michael Rama and all the department heads last week. During the budget meeting, Rama saw a folder labeled as “FOR POWE” from the Cebu City Planning and Development.
Ester Cubero, executive assistant of the Local School Board, said she was asked by Rama to lead and process the backlog projects together with DEPW chief Engr. Jose Marie Poblete.
“Pag-total sa tanan POWE-hanan ni-abot og P3 billion. So gipa-explain ang planning office ug city engineer. It turned out dunay request nga di na madala nila kay undermanned sila. Naay request nga i-outsource nalang but until now way naminaw sa ila request so maong nidaghan ang mga projects nga wa napreparahan (og) POWE,” Cubero said.
Following her assignment from the mayor, Cubero yesterday convened all civil engineers of the City Hall. A total of 20 engineers, on top of the 10 engineers from DEPW, attended the meeting and committed to help in the preparation of POWE.
After the meeting, Cubero said she learned that each of the 10 engineers at the DEPW is holding at least 20 projects.
“Nag come up mi og plan of action. So pirmiro among gitan-aw ang list nga gibasehan sa P3 billion. Daghan diay nga non-infrastructure nga projects like purchase of vehicles. Purchase of street lights. Number one sa among plan of action is clean up the list kay tangtangon ang non-infra. So dili na ni P3 billion. Mo lessen pa ni,” she said.
She said most of the unimplemented projects were from years 2014 and 2015. She declined to name some of the projects that were unimplemented, saying she will provide the list once it will be cleared already.
Rama gave Cubero and Poblete until December 31to come up with POWE so that the projects will be implemented immediately.
“Ang sa (unimplemented) drainage it turned out nga dako pa kaayog trabahoonon. Una mi maka-prepare sa POWE, mag-site inspection, determination sa kinsay tag-iya sa maagian sa drainage. Ana ba. Then og privately owned you have to acquire the lot,” Cubero said, adding that there is a need for the engineer’s commitment to complete the project.
She said she will present the projects to barangay captains in the city so that they can guide the engineers in the site inspection. She added that she will finish cleaning up the list within the week. (FREEMAN)