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2 PNP reg'l offices to explain delay in stations' completion

By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan

July 22, 2022, 11:40 am

<p>PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. <em>(File photo)</em></p>

PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. (File photo)

MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Friday ordered two regional police offices (PROs) to explain the circumstances over the delay in the completion of some police stations under their jurisdiction.

This, after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the police force over four uncompleted police stations under the PRO-11 (Davao Region) and PRO-12 (Soccsksargen) with a total contract price of PHP27.707 million.

“We will require the concerned PROs to immediately submit their reports as to the status of the four projects and the circumstances pertaining to the perceived delay in the project completion,” PNP officer-in-charge, Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. said in a message to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) when sought for a comment.

“Actions of the PNP will depend on the reports and factual circumstances, in relation of course with our existing procurement rules,” Danao said.

The projects in the report are buildings for the Bansalan Municipal Police Station, Midsayap Police Station, Esperanza Municipal Police Station and Arakan Municipal Police Station.

In its 2021 annual audit report, the COA noted that the target dates for the projects’ completion were not met due to “solvency issues of the contractor, inadequate detailed engineering, and failure to establish the technical viability of projects and conformance to land use”.

It added that the non-completion of the project resulted in a delay in achieving the agency’s objective of providing “modern and respectable police stations/ community police action centers and deprived the agency and the end-users of the social and economic benefits that could be derived from said project”.

State auditors, meanwhile, said the PRO-11 agreed to their recommendation to issue a demand letter to the contractor for the immediate completion of the projects and strictly monitor its completion.

The PRO-11 also agreed to impose necessary liquidated damages to the contractor and terminate or rescind the contract once the cumulative amount of liquidated damages reach 10 percent of contract price, “without prejudice to other courses of action and remedies available to them”.

In the same report, the COA noted that the PRO-12 has issued letters to the contractor of the Midsayap police station to resume works.

The construction of the Midsayap police station resumed last March 21.

The audit report also said the PNP management has agreed to undertake bidding and award of contracts only after detailed engineering studies and investigations. (PNA)

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