Susan’s Notes
By Susan Palmes-Dennis
ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—Just watched with some effort—of course taking care of hubby Ronnie and some chores can be taxing—last Monday afternoon’s City Council session that featured a special report on the 100 plus projects that the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged due to failure of contractors to complete them.
The special report delivered by Councilor John Michael Seno cited that City Hall was unable to collect refunds from contractors who were unable to complete their projects for one reason or another such as lack of materials or presence of obstacles such as houses etc. This doesn’t include projects with road-right-of-way problems, Seno said which require mediation and negotiations between City Hall and property owners.
Not including the very real possibility of corruption—infrastructure projects above P50 million are likely to attract corruption of the conspiratorial kind based on Philippine experience—Seno’s report showed the dismally inadequate capability of the City Engineering Office (CEO) to personally oversee and monitor the implementation of infrastructure projects in the city which dated back to as lone as four years back or even a decade ago.
Seno in particular cited the usual practice of the CEO to conduct ‘table mapping’ which is to draw the technical specifications and parameters of infrastructure projects on maps of the project sites which may or may not be updated. Again, this practice has its serious problems as it didn’t take into consideration the presence of structures like houses occupied by settlers which introduces other problems like relocation.
While being interviewed by local media, Seno mentioned that the CEO only has two or three resident engineers whose assessment and/or evaluation of the project site and implementation is needed to authorize the release of mobilization funds needed to complete said projects. The problem lies in whether the evaluation is accurate or reliable as it would determine if the project’s quality once completed is up to standards.
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During the session, Seno said the CEO doesn’t even have enough vehicles for the engineers to inspect the project sites in order to monitor implementation. Again, not setting aside the possibility of corruption which may result in acquisition and use of inferior quality materials after ‘quotas’ (cuts or shares of the project funding) are met, the CEO’s inability to keep track of more than 100 ongoing and long delayed infrastructure projects will take a heavy toll on the quality and longevity of these infrastructures.
In his own program ‘Ang Inyong Alagad: Mayor Klarex Uy,’ Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy mentioned about the practice of these contractors to sub-contract part of their work to other contractors which again would likely degrade the quality of work in every project resulting in cratered or damaged roads, damaged school buildings, leaky roofs etc.
While Seno suggested that penalties be imposed on these errant contractors, Councilor Edgardo Cabanlas—who initiated the council investigation based on his special report to the council after receiving the COA report—proposed that these contractors be invited to explain their side on the issue so the council can enact legislation to resolve this problem.
After all that’s what legislators do which is to initiate investigation in aid of legislation and on this particular issue, the proposal to create an infrastructure monitoring board that will evaluate and track down the implementation of both locally funded and nationally funded projects was raised to the council’s session. The board’s creation gains more traction in light of the Supreme Court’s mandamus ruling.
This ruling to recall grants local governments a bigger share of revenue from the national government in exchange for them assuming more of the national government’s functions like implementation of projects. Question is, are local governments ready to assume these functions once the national government delegates them over a transition period?
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Speaking of that afternoon council session, one of those who actively participated in the discussion was newbie Councilor Malvern ‘Bitok-Bitok’ Esparcia, who I had the opportunity to interview in my program ‘Susan Live’ that was live-streamed at the Facebook page of dxKO RPN-TV 5 and simulcast on their TV and radio channels last Tuesday 7 pm.
While I lay no claim to being an expert judge of a person’s character, I am for now quite pleasantly surprised with how Councilor Esparcia responded to my questions during the program and I can sense a certain somewhat refreshing amount of sincerity and candor on his part when talking about his journey from multi-media personality to local elected official.
As can be expected, Councilor ‘Bitok-bitok’ can be quite articulate in expressing his views and insight on issues as he examines them through the lens of an average person on the street. While a lot of politicians either novice or veteran can speak well, connecting to their constituents is another thing altogether and Bitok-bitok’s long time exposure as entertainer makes it easy for them to establish that connection.
I just hope that whatever direction his new career takes him that Councilor Esparcia doesn’t lose that sense of accessibility and honesty that he has now as a local official. It’s hard enough to find much less support local or nationally elected officials who still retain their character and integrity after years of being in public service and being exposed to the uglier reality of politics where compromise and yes, corruption can change them for the worse.
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