DPWH warns ‘substandard’ contractors

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Contractors with defective projects due to the use of inferior or substandard materials or poor workmanship will not be eligible to participate in future bidding of projects in the Department of Public Works and Highways.

DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson ordered to all implementing units of the agency to strictly comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9184 or Government Procurement Reform Act of 2003.

He also said DPWH officials who fail to implement the said provision will likewise be sanctioned in accordance to Civil Service rules and regulations.

Singson said this will lessen the increasing number of public works projects which were issued certification of completion by DPWH implementing offices but were not yet issued with the certificate of acceptance even after the one-year defect liability period had lapsed. This is due to the failure on the part of contractors to correct the defects noted despite the issuance of notice to repair inferior works.

The DPWH implementing offices were also directed by Singson to undertake review and list all infrastructure contracts under their office that were already issued a certificate of project completion yet were not issued the certificate of acceptance.

If these contractors fail to comply within the 90-day period from the time notice to repair works was issued, Singson ordered the forfeiture of their performance security bond to be used for the appropriate repair works to be undertaken by the concerned DPWH field unit.

More importantly, the names of contractors who fail to observe and comply with their contract will be submitted to the DPWH Central Procurement Office for Civil Works to be included in the computerized registry of eligible contractors so that they will not be qualified or made eligible to participate in any future DPWH biddings.

”Our civil works procuring units, namely project management offices, regional and district offices need to be on tight watch and guarantee that our contractors perform their responsibilities or obligations stated in their contracts,” Singson said.

Also, under the right quality policy of Singson, DPWH has tightened its project inspection and quality assurance by engaging private firms to conduct quality assurance inspection of DPWH infrastructure projects nationwide.