By Dominic B. dela Cruz (Staff Reporter)
Laoag City—To ensure proper implementation of projects, the Sangguniang Panlungsod here requested the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional and district offices to provide the city engineering office a Program of Works (POW) on all DPWH projects in the city.
Laoag Vice Mayor and council presiding officer Vicentito M. Lazo said they based their request on implemented and completed DPWH projects in the city but were found defective, which requires immediate repairs or replacement.
Among those projects were the rehabilitation/concreting of the Laoag-Vintar road at Brgy. 23, this city where some sections need removal and replacement; and the San Mateo flood control project that collapsed due to below standard materials and not in accordance with the POW.
Mr. Lazo, who sponsored the measure, said the defective projects when undetected or if detected requires remedial and/or curative measures, loss of public funds but prejudice to taxpayers as well.
This can also cause traffic in case of defective roads and serious anxiety to nearby residents, he added.
Relative to this, the vice mayor said there is a need for a closer coordination and/or collaboration between the DPWH and the CEO in the implementation of DPWH projects in the city.
In addition to this, the council also approved another resolution requesting the same department to inform the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of the status of projects in the city in a quarterly basis starting in the first quarter of 2020.
Laoag councilor Edison Bonoan, chair of the committee on public works and transportation, said the need for the SP to know the status of DPWH projects within the city of Laoag is for closer coordination between the national government (DPWH) and the city government to avoid double-funding programs, projects and activities (PPA’s) to be implemented in the city that are already included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The council will be in a better position to evaluate the soundness of a resolutions of the City Development Council (CDC) and/or CDC Ex-Com as well as in the passage of the Annual Budget of Laoag.