The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on Saturday said it has sent demand letters to the concerned contractors asking them to expedite the completion of BJMP-run facilities to ease the country’s jail congestion in the midst of the pandemic.
BJMP chief Jail Director Allan Iral warned the erring contractors “with delayed projects shall be imposed with a penalty of liquidated damages.’’
He ordered the BJMP regional offices to continue the “close monitoring and supervision of the project implementation, especially those behind the target completion.’’
To beef-up its efforts, Iral said the BJMP created the National Project Monitoring Team to ensure that project performance targets and measures are strictly monitored “and corrective actions are immediately implemented should there be infractions in the project contract's terms and conditions.’’
The BJMP cited the Commission on Audit (CoA) for recognizing its efforts to decongest jails, including the implementation of infrastructure projects.
"We will remain cooperative to the guidance being extended by the Commission in our day-to-day operations, especially on decongesting our jails and addressing the delays in project implementation," said Iral.
“We required the contractors to come up with an implementation plan within an acceptable period to make sure that they could catch up on their compliance based on the project timeline," he added.
The Commission recommended requiring the Regional Bids and Awards Committee to ensure timely completion of all procurement activities on construction projects, including the improvement of jail facilities.
It also cited the need for the strict supervision on the implementation and construction of various infrastructure projects.
In response, the BJMP reassessed all of its projects and observed a customized project management scheme for the delayed projects as part of its commitment to continuously improve the agency's work systems on implementing infrastructure projects.
“We assure the public that the BJMP is working round-the-clock to fasttrack the implementation of the delayed projects following strictest safety and health standards in the workplace,” Iral said.
“The causes of delays such as unworkable weather conditions and other factors may be outside the control of the BJMP, but we make no excuses with these circumstances. We remain committed to finishing these projects as planned, and this is where we are putting all of our efforts," Iral added.