The Contractor For The Iloilo Airport Project Gets Paid After Almost A Decade Since Completion Of The Project
The contractor for the completed airport project in Iloilo finally gets paid by the local government after almost a decade.
The payment for Taisei Shimizu Joint Venture (TSJV) who construct the Iloilo airport project was already granted by the Commission on Audit (COA) last 2016, after TSJV filed their money claim against the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
But the government will only pay P104.661 million ($2,100,875) and not the entire P216.074 million ($4,337,285) for failing to compensate the project completion of the project last March 2007.
In March 2004, the Iloilo airport project contract was signed and supposed to be finished by October 18, 2006, but it was completed on March 18, 2007. COA dismissed the addition money claim of TSJV’s on the unseen increased material costs.
TSJV were demanding an addition amount of P111.413 million including the P6.032 million for the extension of contract time, P7.235 million for litigation expenses, P37.08 million increased construction materials costs, P61.066 million interest for delayed payments for a total of P111.413 million.
COA dismissed the money claim of the contractor based on Section 61 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Government Procurement Reform Act. The provision was only allowing “extraordinary circumstances” on increasing the materials’ cost approved by Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB).
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) will be the one to determine if the “extraordinary circumstances” were valid enough to be approved. COA also pointed that the variation order doesn’t yet have the approval of the head.
“Certainly, in the case at hand, the DOTC cannot be made to pay for the misdeed and inability of its officials to fulfill its obligations to TSJV. In the absence of a statutory provision clearly or expressly directing or authorizing payment of interest or EOT, the national government cannot be required to pay the same,” said by COA quoted by Rappler.
