THE latest directive of a Cabinet-level project evaluation body regarding the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is not a setback, but actually moves the project forward, Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete said.

Villarete was reacting to the order issued Wednesday, April 25, by the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee (Neda-ICC) to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to award the contract for a technical services consultant (TSC).

In a social media post Friday, April 27, Villarete said the TSC "is part and parcel of the requirements under the loan agreements signed in 2014 for the Cebu BRT" project.

"It should have been awarded in 2016 yet. But DOTr, wittingly or unwittingly, had a hard time awarding the TSC's contract," he said.

The failure to award the TSC contract is "the major cause of delay" of the project, Villarete said.

He said the Commission on Audit has issued two Audit Observation Memoranda (AOM) which warned the DOTr about the delay because of its failure to hire a TSC.