Thursday, September 27, 2007 Spare projects from politics: public works
THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) called on feuding politicians in the different provinces in Cordillera to spare the implementation of numerous infrastructure projects from their bickering for the sake of development that would be beneficial to the people.
DPWH Regional Director Mariano Alquiza said the implementation of multimillion-peso projects in the different parts of the region had been greatly affected by the numerous criticisms being hurled against their office, which he claimed are “obviously politically-motivated and tainted with evil motives.”
He appealed to critics not to mislead the public by sowing intrigues aimed at discrediting the image of the agency and the incumbent politicians responsible for the implementation of various infrastructure projects.
“We are very transparent in whatever we do and we do not hide anything in the region,” Alquiza stressed, adding that serious allegations on rigged bidding and substandard projects must be substantiated and be proven before they would be judged by the people.
Alquiza, on the other hand, reportedly terminated the services of one contractor for allegedly being delayed in the implementation of some public works projects where his services were contracted.
He added: “The people are the ones suffering from the petty bickering of feuding politicians, thus there is a need for them to spare the implementation of projects from their differences so that implementing agencies could move on smoothly.”
“In fact, the defects reported in numerous projects had already been addressed with his standing order for all contractors to remove and replace works that are found be technical people and other independent and competent groups as below the standards,” Alquiza added.
“Worst, some of the self-proclaimed crusaders for good governance have records of implementing sub-standard projects using the licenses of other contractors, thus they do not have the moral ascendancy and credibility to claim quality implementation of projects,” he said.
Alquiza asserted he would not “buckle down to the tremendous pressure being done by the self-proclaimed anti-graft crusaders since their works are all done within the bounds of the law and they are not hiding anything from the people of Cordillera.”
He said contractors implementing multimillion-peso infrastructure projects in the region had been subjected to fair bidding process and pre-screened by the DPWH central office, thus it is understood that they have passed the required criteria of having the financial muscle, equipment capability, manpower requirement and proven track record. (DS)
