wwm casino (winwinmnl.com) COA calls out MMDA for delayed flood control projects
MANILA, Philippines — There is no end in sight to the perennial flooding problem in Metro Manila, especially during the rainy seasonwwm casino (winwinmnl.com), as infrastructure projects continue to languish in delays and other implementation inefficiencies, the latest report from the Commission on Audit (COA) showed.
In its 2023 annual audit report on the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) released on Dec. 1, the COA noted that 22 of the 58 projects and programs under the Metro Manila Flood Management Project Phase 1 were already beyond their target completion dates for almost one year or up to 310 days as of Dec. 31, 2023.
The 22 projects have a total budget of P510.58 million.
Aside from these, COA said 29 other flood control projects – with a total allocation of P371.029 million – have yet to be implemented “due to non-observance of the conduct of early procurement activities and cancellation of projects.”
The COA said the government has already incurred P32.9 million in commitment fees from 2018 to 2023 because of the implementation delays. A commitment fee is paid to a bank or lender in exchange for an agreement to grant a loan at a later date and serves as compensation for setting aside the amount of loan instead of utilizing it for other purposes.
The audit team attributed the delays mainly to the MMDA’s “poor strategies in monitoring and implementation of programs and projects” which often resulted in revisions of target completion dates.
“The foregoing observations indicate non-observance by the MMDA of the conduct of early procurement activities. It also manifested the Project Management Office’s inadequacy of strategies to strictly implement the planned programs/projects and closely monitor the implementation,” the COA said.
“The MMDA must expedite the implementation of programs and projects as these will also improve the quality of services rendered to the public,” it added.
In a reply incorporated in the audit report, the MMDA said the 22 sub-projects identified by the audit team as not completed within the dates indicated in the original contracts were under valid time extensions.
The MMDA said the requests for time extensions were approved as the delays were not because of the contractor or supplier’s fault.
“The requests from service providers are mainly due to custom clearances, port congestion, changes of design and specifications for custom-made goods, reconceptualization, changing weather conditions, time suspensions and variation orders,” the MMDA management said.
In its rejoinder, however, the audit team maintained that the revisions in target completion dates “may be an indication of ineffective planning.”
“Thuswwm casino (winwinmnl.com), the PMO is encouraged to enhance its planning mechanisms and address foreseeable circumstances that may affect the timely implementation of the projects,” the audit team said.