The Commission on Audit (COA) told the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to recover a total of P431.933 million from contractors of projects which went over the allowable costs.
In the 2019 audit on the DPWH, COA said that 184 projects nationwide were found “excessive” by its technical audit specialists using the Approved Budget for the Contract as reference values.
“This deficiency between the contract cost and COA estimate cost should have been corrected and rectified during the bid evaluation conducted by the Bids and Awards Committee-Technical Working Group on the bid price of the contractors prior to declaration of the Lowest Calculated Bid,” the report said.
Moreover, a total of P101.69 billion worth of problematic projects, including P3.206 billion worth of projects which have not yet started, were flagged by the state auditors.
The total amount also includes P65.989 billion projects not completed within the specific contract time, suspended projects worth P31.051 billion, and terminated projects totaling P1.444 billion.
Auditors noted that the DPWH management and its consultants failed to consider factors such as typhoons, peace and order situations, road right-of-way, local government permits and others.
