In its 2022 Audit Report, COA said the most common delays on these projects were attributed to the issues of road right of way (RROW), presence of informal settlers, overlapping with projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and pending variation orders.
COA said these are contrary to Annex A of the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184, that requires that detailed engineering shall proceed only after a feasibility or preliminary engineering study has established the technical viability of the project and conformance to land use and zoning guidelines; and Section 2 of Presidential Decree 1445, which provides that government resources be managed, expended or used in accordance with law and regulations, and safeguarded against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition, to ensure efficient, economic and effective government operations.
Upon its review of the City’s Report on Government Projects, Programs and Activities for the fourth quarter of 2022, the state auditor found that the 16 projects remained unfinished or unimplemented because the contracts had been rescinded, recommended for rescission or suspended.
The audit team noted that some of these projects had not been implemented for more than five years already.
Therefore, COA recommended and the City Government agreed to oblige the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) and City Engineering Office (CEO) to resolve all identified issues through coordination with the concerned national agencies, affected lot owners and other stakeholders.
CPDO and CEO must also evaluate the unfinished or suspended projects and develop a workable solution that will hasten their implementation or otherwise revoke their contracts and realign available funds to more feasible projects.
In addition, it must ensure that the detailed engineering of these infrastructure projects, particularly during the preliminary engineering study, observes Annex A of the Revised IRR of RA 9184 for higher chances of implementation.
In its reply, the Mandaue City Government told COA that the challenges it faced with existing informal settlers were that during the planning stage, the informal settlers would promise to vacate the place on the implementation but later retract their support during the actual implementation stage, delaying the projects until their eventual suspension.