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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 17 July) – The local government has activated a monitoring team to ensure the completion of all city-funded infrastructure projects.
Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the activation of the monitoring team is to prevent contractors from abandoning the implementation of the projects after collecting the mobilization fund.
Salazar said the monitoring team comprises of personnel from the different government offices such as the City Mayor’s Office, City Engineer’s Office, City Treasurer and others.
“That means there is a team that goes around and tries to evaluate all of the projects and then they inform us what needs to be done, what are the legal impediments so it can be corrected so that the projects will be (fully) implemented,” Salazar said.
She said that under the existing law the city government is required to release the mobilization fund to the contractor before the actual implementation of the project.
The mobilization fund is 15 percent of the total cost of a particular project. Its purpose is to enable the contractor to mobilize equipment machineries and workers to start the implementation of the project.
However, it has been noted there were infrastructure projects that were abandoned and left unfinished after the contractor collected the mobilization fund.
Salazar did not present the list of abandoned projects except in saying “a lot of projects are not completed because the contractors just get the mobilization fund and then they disappear.”
Meanwhile, Salazar said sanctions will be slapped on contractors that abandon the implementation of projects in this city.
She said among the sanctions is to blacklist the erring contractor.
