Solon wants blacklisting of village health stations project contractor

“I’m personally inclined to recommend the blacklisting of this company to all government projects because if they can do it here in DOH, definitely they can do it in other government projects,” Gatchalian said in an interview after the Senate investigation on the BHS project. (Photo: Senator Win Gatchalian/Facebook)

MANILA — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday said he would recommend the blacklisting of the contractor who bagged the PHP8.1-billion Barangay Health Stations (BHS) project over alleged irregularities in the project’s implementation.

The lawmaker was referring to the JBROS Construction Corporation, the winning bidder for the Department of Health (DOH) project that was implemented during the Aquino administration.

The BHS project was aimed at constructing 5,700 school-based rural health units to ensure barangays have access to primary health care.

The project was divided into two phases: construction of 3,200 BHS in Phase 1, and 2,500 BHS in Phase 2.

JBROS last March billed the DOH amounting to PHP2.9 billion for the 429 barangay health sites which it claimed to have already completed.

However, the DOH withheld payment after finding out that only 270 barangay health stations were completed of which only eight had validated complete documents.

“I’m personally inclined to recommend the blacklisting of this company to all government projects because if they can do it here in DOH, definitely they can do it in other government projects,” Gatchalian said in an interview after the Senate investigation on the BHS project.

“This is not to the best interest of the Filipino people because of their misrepresentation, hindi tama ang ginawa nila (what they’re doing is wrong),” he added.

The Senate Committee on Health and Demography, which is chaired by Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, is conducting an inquiry into the BHS project after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged some issues and irregularities in the project.

In its 2017 Performance Audit Report, the COA observed that the list of project sites for the construction of BHS included barangays with existing BHS; identified school sites have no available space/lot for the construction of BHS; and project sites have no existing schools; among others.

On the issue of the contractor, Gatchalian pointed out that the biggest mistake JBROS committed is “misrepresentation.”

“I think the biggest problem here is the misrepresentation of the contractor. Sinasabi nga niya na tapos na ang trabaho niya pero hindi pa naman pala (They said the project is already completed when it is still not finished), that’s the biggest issue here,” he said.

“This is important because the contractors, they are also doing other projects…So we don’t want this type of contractors doing business with the government especially if they’re fooling the government and the public,” Gatchalian said.

Ejercito also wants to blacklist JBROS if it is proven that “they submitted false documents.”

In its defense, JBROS said the the two main problems that hampered the implementation of the project is DOH’s breach of contract by failing to deliver possession of the sites to the contractor and the agency’s failure to pay the first progress billing.

During the hearing, lawyer Julieanne Jorge, JBROS director of operations, said the DOH contractually obligated itself to deliver possession of all 3,200 sites under Phase I to the contractor within seven days upon issuance of the Notice to Proceed (NTP) on or before Jan. 29, 2016.

“There were still unworkable sites until the contract’s termination on April 13, 2018,” she said.

She also said under the contract, the first progress payment may be made when the contractor succeeds in accomplishing at least 20 percent of the works.

“By May 2017, the Contractor has accomplished at least 24.35 percent of the works based on the Bill of Quantities,” Jorge noted.

Jorge said JBROS has decided to seek the intervention of the Construction Arbitration Industry Commission (CIAC) on the uncollected fees for the PHP8.1-billion project.

“We were compelled to resort to the arbitration committee for the DOH to finally settle its obligation. So CIAC will determine how much is due to the contractor and how much in total that we can claim from DOH,” Jorge said.