The Commission on Audit’s 2025 Annual Audit Report reveals that 41 Cebu City infrastructure projects remain stalled, with the city utilizing only 7.98% of its P4.32 billion Development Fund.
Auditors cited failures to secure land ownership documentation, missing project design plans, and a shortage of design staff within the Department of Engineering and Public Works as primary causes for delays.
The Commission on Audit recommended that the city exclusively fund projects that are 100% ready for implementation and establish a centralized tracking system to prevent future communication and budgetary errors.
A MASSIVE P2.11 billion meant to build better roads, fix flooding, and upgrade healthcare centers in Cebu City sits unused.
A new report from the Commission on Audit (COA) reveals that 41 priority projects have stalled or never even started. According to COA's 2025 Annual Audit Report, the Cebu City Government used only P344.45 million—a tiny 7.98 percent—of its P4.32 billion Development Fund. This leaves P3.97 billion sitting idle, delaying critical upgrades that local residents need today.
Why are the projects stuck?
Auditors found that the city’s plans simply weren't ready. COA rules state that projects must be fully prepared before they get budget approval. Instead, investigators found a messy trail of paperwork and missing documents:
17 projects (worth P951.29 million) were stuck in the early document stages, missing design plans, approved budgets, or work estimates. This includes a massive P762.99 million to fix the Cebu City Health building and P120 million for an evacuation center in Barangay San Jose.
18 projects (worth P225.63 million) had to be sent back because the city couldn't prove it actually owned the land for the proposed sites.
5 land buying projects (worth P896 million) are completely frozen until the city restarts its closed Land Management Office.
1 project (worth P40 million) needs to have its funds moved somewhere else entirely.
The Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) blamed the bottleneck on a severe shortage of workers in its design team, who are overwhelmed trying to handle older projects.
Flooding and road issues remain unfixed
This is not a new problem. COA noted that the city showed very little improvement in building infrastructure from 2022 to 2025. In fact, not a single project planned for 2025 even reached the bidding stage.
Many of these stalled plans involve pouring concrete for roads and building drainage systems. Because they are stuck on paper, everyday citizens continue to suffer through broken roads and heavy flooding.
“The non-implementation of these priority projects could be construed that the Management (City Government) did not ensure the optimal contribution on the attainment of socio-economic targets and outcomes of the City,” COA stated.
Private land and budget errors
The investigation also uncovered deep coordination issues between different government offices.
Auditors discovered that 18 road projects were planned on private land without permission from the owners, because some local villages submitted the wrong locations.
Furthermore, when the city tried to shuffle money around, it made major mistakes. The city tried to take money away from projects they thought were paused, only to find out those projects were already finished, under construction, or already given to contractors—such as a drainage project in Barangay San Nicolas. COA warned that these communication errors could lead to double fundings and even worse delays.
Even the signs on the street were wrong. In Barangay Sambag 1, a billboard for a road and drainage project claimed it had a completion date, even though the work was actually suspended.
What happens next?
To fix this gridlock, COA is telling Cebu City to only fund projects that are 100% ready to build, create a single tracking system to watch projects from start to finish, and hire outside help to fix the worker shortage.
The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) has proposed a new plan for offices to share a central tracking system and do joint site inspections. While COA acknowledged the proposal, they pointed out that they have made these exact recommendations before. Whether Cebu City gets its missing infrastructure depends entirely on whether local officials actually follow through this time.JGS