All Bulacan public works projects ‘overpriced’
Now comes another confirmation—or confession—from an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), about something flood-weary residents of Bulacan province have been enduring all these years.
Due to kickbacks of as much as 25 percent to 30 percent, all public works projects in the first district of the DPWH-Bulacan office may be considered overpriced, according to one of its former embattled officials.
Returning to testify in a Senate inquiry on flood control project anomalies, former district engineer Brice Hernandez said this had been the case in his area since 2019.
Hernandez used the term “substandard” to describe the projects, but he was actually explaining how the DPWH, or at least his office, could bloat the project cost so that there would be more money to go around for kickbacks.
According to Hernandez, he and fellow DPWH engineers in the district office would, on paper, change the original project plan coming from a requesting agency in order to justify the need for more building materials and funding.
‘Obligations’ or ‘SOP’
However, they would still stick to the original design and specifications during actual construction. The excess funds from the bloated budget would then become the source of kickbacks.
Again facing the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday, Hernandez said all district projects had politicians as “proponents” who must be given cuts from the project funding, known in the public works lingo as “obligations” or “SOP.”
The same is true not only for flood control projects but also for roads and public buildings, including hospitals, he said in reply to questions from Sen. Erwin Tulfo.
“For a multipurpose building, as far as I know the obligation is only 10 percent,’’ he added, while flood control and farm-to-market road projects would have bigger kickbacks.
By “substandard,” Hernandez actually meant the project was “overpriced.”
In constructing a government hospital, for example, “the Department of Health would have a plan and we will follow that. But we also somehow alter it by increasing the amount (needed) for the foundation… but in the actual (construction), we don’t change it,” he said.
Hernandez gave another example, this time with the contract price already being bloated at the bidding process:
“Whatever the DOH asks us to build, we will do it, but the program we will bid out in our office is bigger compared to what they are asking us to do. It becomes bloated, and so we’ll have a source for covering expenses, including that for the proponent.
The DPWH-Bulacan first district covers the towns of Calumpit, Hagonoy, Paombong, Malolos, Obando, Bulacan, Pulilan, Plaridel, Bustos, Guiguinto, Balagtas, Bocaue and Baliwag.
