CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Rolando "Klarex" Uy is working to make the city government's system better in carrying out development projects.
Even the City Council's committees are together checking on projects that the city's development fund has paid for after a report from the Commission on Audit (COA) found issues with 126 projects.
"We will respond to the COA's findings and work hard to complete all the projects that were started by the previous government," said Uy.
Public works committee chair Councilor John Michael Seno of the City Council said after the city council's investigation started last Wednesday that 18 of the 37 projects the state auditors pointed out have already been finished.
The 126 projects were mainly related to roads and drainage systems, according to Seno.
The COA report being discussed was for 2022, but it also looked at projects that started in 2018.
"The projects were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic that was from March 2020 to May 2022 and because of bad weather," Seno said to reporters.
In a meeting last Wednesday, Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez, Majority Floor Leader Edgardo Cabanlas, and members of the public works, and finance and appropriation committees corrected the report.
They said three of the 37 projects haven't started even though they have been given 15% of the funds.
Seno said the audit findings might have a report from the City Engineering Office. He said they will check the projects next week.
He is also now proposing that contractors present a complete work plan to avoid project delays.
He also suggested that the city's engineering department should enhance the role of the project monitoring and inspection team in carrying out projects, including overseeing their expenses.
According to Acting City Engineer Joel Momongan, the contractor has begun work on the three projects, but they have not yet received the 15% mobilization fund. During last Wednesday's hearing, the City Accounting office confirmed that City Hall has not released funds for these specific projects.
Contractors often start working on projects when they get their Notice of Award and Notice to Proceed and then ask the government for money based on how much work they have done.
Momongan, who just started working as the head of the engineering office two weeks ago, is focusing on making the CEO better at planning, checking, and evaluating projects.
He talked with contractors to find solutions that benefit both sides for issues and concerns in the projects.
In a meeting two weeks ago, Mayor Uy said that they will hire more engineers, architects, and other workers to deal with the increasing amount of work at the engineering office.
The CEO currently has two project engineers and 12 resident engineers.
Momongan said an engineer in his office manages 20 to 40 projects.
He said with that amount of work, it's hard for them to be efficient. He said the CEO will hire more engineers and other workers.
