First of two parts
With the onset of the rainy season, flooding in Metro Manila remains one of the biggest problems in the metropolis, and residents again are hoping that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) would be up to the task in solving this problem before this administration ends.
But a good track record of the MMDA on this issue is wanting, with previous reports from the Commission on Audit (COA) showing inefficiencies in the planning, procurement and rehabilitation of flood-control projects needed in Metro Manila.
In the last two COA reports on the efficiency of the expenditures and implementation of the projects by the MMDA, it was noted that the agency had not been very efficient in implementing flood-control projects.
The inefficiency is shown in either the delays in the completion of the projects, which prevented such projects from providing timely relief during the rainy season; or in the lack of planning and coordination in the implementation of infrastructure projects, which resulted in wastage of government money.
In 2012, for instance, the COA observed in its annual audit report for that year that flood-control projects did not serve the purpose for which they were funded by the government because of inefficient implementation and inadequate planning by the MMDA.
In that year, a big chunk, or 83.5 percent, of the flood-control projects were completed only in the third and fourth quarters of the year, long after the rainy season had begun, during which these projects were most needed.
“Of the 49 proposed flood-control projects in 2012, a total of 41, or 83.47 percent, costing P224 million of the P322-million budget, were completed only in the third and fourth quarters of 2012 and January 2013, as procurement activities were undertaken in the second and third quarters of the year, thereby defeating the intent of mitigating, or preventing, the impact of the heavy rains to the public at large to which these projects could have served their purpose,” the COA Annual Audit Report for 2012 said.
In response to the delayed implementation of the flood-control projects in 2012, the COA recommended that the MMDA should “revisit its strategies and practices in the implementation of flood-control projects, given that time is of the essence vis-à-vis the weather patterns of the Philippines.”
However, during the following year, the COA observed in its follow-up activities on its recommendation that there were still more than 50 percent of approved flood-control projects that were not delivered on time.
In the COA’s audit report for 2013, the commission said that when it followed up the recommendations on the flood-control projects the previous year, it was found that the MMDA only partially complied with such recommendations, resulting in another delayed implementation of these vital undertakings during the rainy season, when they are needed most.
“For projects undertaken in 2013, 30 of 62, or 48.40 percent, of the projects funded under the General Appropriations Act were still not delivered before the onset of the rainy season,” the Part III of the COA Annual Audit Report in 2013 said. To be concluded