AS THE Cebu City Government seeks to resolve the concerns about the first two phases of its modern traffic light project, the proposed compromise agreement could benefit the City Hall despite pending legal review and technicalities.
Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said he will review the proposed compromise agreement to ensure it is “advantageous” to the City.
The task force assigned to investigate the contracts and deliverables of the first two phases has yet to review the initial re-inspection reports of Phase 1, which will form the basis of its recommendation to the mayor.
In 2020, the supplier of the first two phases initially replaced the more than 40-year-old city traffic lights in several intersections, installed by the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (Scats), with modern digital traffic signal lights and improvements including underground cables, high-definition cameras and artificial intelligence to detect traffic flow and automatically adjust signal timing.
Advantageous
In a phone interview on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, Councilor Jocelyn “Joy” Pesquera told SunStar Cebu that fellow Councilor James Anthony Cuenco’s revelation that the City Government could settle the issues with the supplier for around P50 million is a favorable settlement.
Pesquera said the City Government has nearly completed its payments for Phase 1, with less than 10 percent of the obligations remaining; however, for Phase 2, the City has only made an initial payment.
Pesquera, though, refused to comment further until an official proposal is endorsed to the council to avoid preempting the proposal.
Earlier, Pesquera told SunStar Cebu that she is requesting the Commission on Audit (COA) for a fraud audit to investigate Phase 1 and Phase 2.
She has submitted a resolution to the council, seeking legal opinion on the contracts after the supplier threatened to sue the City Government before the Office of the Ombudsman if payment is not made.
In a Viber message on Thursday, Garcia told SunStar Cebu that he is open to the compromise agreement, but only if it is favorable to the City Government.
“But I will have to check on the provisions of the agreement, especially its legality. What is paramount is that it will be advantageous to the city,” said Garcia.
The mayor created the task force after the supplier issued a demand letter for full payment, threatening legal action if unpaid.
On Monday, Garcia said the City Government had already paid 90 percent of the P232 million contract for Phase 1 and made a 15 percent down payment on the P248 million cost of Phase 2.
SunStar Cebu calculated that, based on Garcia’s statement, the City has paid around P208.8 million to the supplier, Triune Electronics Systems Inc. and Cylix Tech CCTV, for Phase 1, and made an initial payment of P37.2 million for Phase 2.
This calculation shows that the City Government has paid the supplier approximately P246 million out of the P420 million total cost for the first two phases.
The City could save around P184 million if the P50 million compromise agreement is implemented.
On Wednesday, Cuenco told SunStar Cebu the compromise agreement has been proposed, which allows the City Government to settle its unpaid obligation to the supplier.
Cuenco chairs the committee on transportation.
In return, the supplier will activate the initially delivered equipment, which was not yet fully utilized, to ensure that the newly installed modern traffic lights will be used. And that no lawsuit will be pursued in connection to the project.
However, he clarified that these are still in the proposal stage, and this has to be reviewed and approved by the City Council first.
Meanwhile, task force member Raddy Diola told SunStar Cebu on Thursday that they expect to receive the report on last month’s re-inspection of Phase 1 of the modern traffic lights, including the Command Center, this Friday, Oct. 25.
The re-inspection was agreed upon during Garcia’s visit to the Command Center in September, along with the supplier and representatives from the Cebu City Transportation Office.
It involves checking again the installed equipment in Phase 1 that covers at least 18 intersections
“We want to check if what is stipulated in the deliverables must have been delivered based on the Terms of References based on the contract. We were not involved in those things because Phase 1 was delivered back in 2022,” said Diola.
Diola said the re-inspection of Phase 2, covering at least 40 intersections, will follow next after Phase 1 is reviewed, including the costing.
He added that he is one of the consultants tapped to review the modern traffic lights, together with the representatives from CCTO.
The task force aims to assess whether the contract deliverables for Phases 1 and 2 adhere to the established standards and if the city government has received commensurate value for its investment.
Former Traffic Management Coordination Committee (TMCC) chairman Rico Rey Francis “Koko” Holganza suggested that instead of pushing for the phase three project, the City could use the budget to hire more diligent traffic enforcers and procure large trucks to improve traffic conditions.
Garcia said on Monday that he has proposed P240 million to fund Phase 3 of the modern traffic signal light project.
According to the assistant chief of the CCTO, Kent Francesco Jongoy, the department has around 310 field personnel to enforce traffic in the city.
Jongoy earlier told SunStar Cebu that the proposal for Phase 3 is still pending approval from the TMCC before it can be endorsed to the City Council.