The Commission on Audit chided the Cebu provincial government for granting “a series of time extensions and work suspensions” that resulted in the delay in the delivery of over P400 million worth of infrastructure projects.

COA reported in the 2019 annual audit report that it released recently that provincial officials were quite lenient in granting requests for extension and work suspension sought by contractors.

Former Gov. Hilarion Davide III was head of the province during the period of audit.  He was replaced by incumbent Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who assured state auditors that work extensions and variation orders will no longer be granted under her watch.

In two projects started in 2018, extensions stretched to at least 240 days.  These projects were the concreting and improvement of Poblacion-Bugho Road in San Fernando and the Anislag Road section in Pinamungajan.

Implemented under the Conditional Matching Grant in Provinces program, these two projects cost the government over P120 million to finance.

“The implementation of four projects funded under the CY 2017 and 2018 CMGP was unduly delayed due to the management’s liberality in granting contract time extensions to the contractor resulting in the delayed enjoyment of the benefits thereof by the intended beneficiaries,” COA said.

Two other CMGP projects also in  San Fernando and Pinamungajan towns, were not delivered on time.  Government spent at least P92 million for the two projects that were granted a total 195 days of additional contract completion.

“Three infrastructure projects implemented by the province under the Philippine Rural Development Project with a total contract cost of P179,597,697.61 were not completed as planned due to management’s grant of a series of time extensions and work suspensions resulting in the delay of the delivery of facilities to the intended beneficiaries,” COA revealed.

For the Alegria Potable Water Supply Project, the contract completion was extended 398 days of time extensions and suspension order.

On the other hand, the rehabilitation of the Kinwahan-Canagahan Farm-to Market Road in San Remigio was granted 339 additional days of completion due to suspension and variation orders.

“During the exit conference, the governor commented that during her time now she no longer tolerates extension of time to any project in the province of Cebu,” COA said.

Auditors demanded an explanation on the grant to the contractors of time extensions, variation orders and work suspension 

Meanwhile, audit examiners disclosed that the contract cost of the Alegria-Kabankalan road improvement project in Tuburan was overpriced by as much as P2.7 million.

“The contract cost of P14,954,525.39 of the project ‘Concreting/improvement of Alegria-Kabankalan Road Section at Tuburan Cebu’ was observed to be excessive by P2,780,051.07 compared to the COA computed cost of only P12,174,474.33, hence considered disadvantageous to government,” the COA reported.

Reacting to the adverse observation, the provincial engineer, in a letter sent to COA on February 28, 2020, said that the variance was due to the percentage of tax rate used in the computation.”