A TOTAL of 147 infrastructure projects worth P866.86 million awarded by the provincial government of La Union in the last two years went to only 11 contractors.
That coincidence by itself may tease out a few awkward questions but the 2019 audit of La Union province released last June 5 said not only were multiple projects awarded to the same contractors, some projects even had the same or overlapping implementation period.
At least four contractors also listed several projects with closely similar timetables with the same project engineers or material engineers — regardless of the distance between the said public works projects.
Post qualification of firms that submitted bids were likewise conducted and completed on a single day, an unusually quick process according to government auditors considering that the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Bids and Awards Committee was supposed to review compliance with eligibility, legal, technical and financial requirements.
“It can be deduced that the TWG did not properly conduct the site inspection and verification of on-going projects of the LCB (lowest calculated bidder) contracted with the agency or other government agencies, if any, in order to ensure that the bidder can sustain the project and to assess the credibility of the submitted technical documents,” the Commission on Audit said.
The audit report identified the 11 contractors as:
EE Madayag Construction which won 41 contracts (21 in 2018 and another 20 in 2019) worth a combined P250.35 million;
JD Madrid Construction with nine contracts (2 in 2018, 7 in 2019) totaling P154 .15 million;
Villar General Construction and Supplies with 19 contracts (19 in 2018 and 1 in 2019) worth P103.22 million;
KRB Construction with 22 contracts (4 in 2018, 18 in 2019) worth P108.98 million;
JA Olivar Engineering Design, Construction and Supplies with 17 contracts (8 in 2018, 9 in 2019) worth P64.4 million;
RGBenito Construction with three contracts all won in 2019 totaling P52.65 million;
Pagtaengan Builders with 11 contracts (7 in 2018, 4 in 2019) worth P38.86 million;
808 Construction and Suppply with seven contracts (3 in 2018 and 4 in 2019) worth P34.66 million;
ARV Construction and Supplies with nine contracts (two in 2018 and seven in 2019) worth P30.88 million;
RC Floresca Construction and Supply with four contracts (three in 2018 and one in 2019) worth P17.86 million; and
Kin Joy Construction and Supply with four contracts (one in 2018 and three in 2019) worth P10.84 million.
Those tagged for submitting the same names of key personnel for projects with overlapping timetables and completion dates were EE Madayag, 808 Construction, Villar General Construction and Supplies, and KRB Construction.
“The manpower utilization schedule showed that project engineers and material engineers were to be in the project site from the start up to the completion of the project. Thus, the key personnel of the contractors would have to perform their assigned jobs simultaneously, contrary to the submitted affidavit of commitment,” the audit team pointed out.
They said these findings constitute violations of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Law and its Implementing Rules and Regulations.
“The simultaneous awarding of projects and overlapping contract duration with the same key personnel posed doubt as to the capability of the contractors to undertake projects with the project duration. The quality of work might also be negatively affected due to limited time spent by the key personnel in supervising the multiple projects,” auditors noted.
In its comment, the provincial government defended the overlapping project timetables and the limited pool of contractors that cornered the multi-million projects as a consequence of the need to support the administration’s Build, Build, Build Program.
It said the infrastructure projects were top priorities of the government and had to be implemented every calendar year to create jobs. Develop industries and spur economic growth in the province.
Acknowledging the fact that key technical personnel were named for several on-going projects, the provincial government said it has asked contractors to submit names of alternative personnel for each project.