City Hall tackles P3-B backlog of projects since year 2010

Around P3 billion worth of programs and projects in Cebu City remain unimplemented.

This is why City Hall is  speeding up the preparation of Programs of Work and Estimates (POWEs) for  infrastructure projects which has unspent funds appropriated as far back as 2010.

According to Ester Cubero, one of the mayor’s executive assistants, they are reviewing the list of P3-billion projects to classify  infrastructure projects which still need POWEs and  programs which don’t.

“We came up with a plan of action. First, we looked into the list of the P3-billion projects. Some are  non-infrastructure projects like the purchase of vehicles, street lights. These don’t need POWEs. Our first action is to clean up the list. We will remove the non-infrastructure projects so the list can still be reduced,” she told reporters yesterday.

She wouldn’t show  the list but said they include  road concreting and asphalting as well as drainage projects.

Cubero met with City Hall engineers yesterday to ask for their help in preparing  POWEs for the infrastructure projects since the city’s Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) is undermanned.

She said the  projects haven’t  begun because there were no  POWEs.

DEPW  has 10 civil engineers preparing POWEs for all infrastructure projects in the city.

Cubero said some engineers even handle more than 20 projects.

Cubero said this is why they asked other engineers in City Hall, who are assigned in other offices and departments, to help out.

They were able to gather 20 additional civil engineers to help DEPW’s 10-man crew.

“Aside from preparing the POWE, there are still other things to do like site inspection, determination of private lots to be affected,” she said.

Cubero was tasked by Mayor Michael Rama, together with City Engr. Jose Marie Poblete, to clear the backlog of baccklog of projects.

They were given until December 31 to come up with the POWEs for the projects.

A  plan to outsource engineers to help in the POWE preparation was dropped because it’s  almost the end of the year and they couldn’t secure an additional budget for it.

Cubero said they will just seek the help of other City Hall engineers.

The backlog surfaced during the mayor’s meeting for the preparation of the city’s 2016 annual budget last week.

Cubero said the bulk of  unimplemented projects are funded by the city’s 2014 and 2015 annual budgets.

Cubero said they will be meeting with barangay captains, through the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), to ask their support in the project implementation, like accompanying engineers during site inspections, identifying the areas and talking to the residents that might be affected.

In the previous administration, Cubero said she was chairman of City Hall’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for both infrastructure and goods.

She recalled that during her time, there were no delays in the bidding of projects.

Today  she’s the mayor’s executive assistant, handling mainly the Local School Board and the city’s scholarship committee as well as around ten other special bodies and commissions.