Dredging Project: Beyond Audit And Accountability

by ODON S. BANDIOLA

The decision of the provincial government of Aklan to engage the STL Panay Resources LTD to dredge the Aklan River downstream the Kalibo-Numancia bridge to its mouth at the north towards the Sibuyan Sea highlights a very big question to the minds of our people, the AKlanons.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE P100 MILLION DREDGING PROJECT THE DPWH IMPLEMENTED? IT WAS REGIONAL OFFICE IN ILOILO CITY WHICH DID EVERYTHING IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 2008 TYPHOON FRANK IN THE SAME AREA OF THE RIVER.

The implementation of that DPWH dredging project was considerably delayed even after Typhoon Frank and therefore, the total appropriation for the said project was consummated and the dredging deemed completed.

This incoming proposed dredging project of the provincial government with a private firm will only indicate less or nothing had happened to mitigate the flooding of the capital town of Kalibo and the neighboring towns of Numancia and other towns by the Aklan River.

Abnormal heavy rainfall brought by Tropical Depression Quinta proved that the P100 million dredging project at the Aklan River in the aftermath of Typhoon Frank was worthless after just a matter of a couple or more years.

The draft agreement between the STL Panay Resources LTD on one hand and the provincial government for the dredging project shall entail no cost on the part of the LGU-province. The provincial government shall be compensated P5 per cubic meter of dredged materials commercialized by the private party.

Critics said the arrangement is a sell-out at P5 per cubic meter. STL Panay Resources is expected to dredge about 15 million cubic meters, or, P75 million income for Aklan province without investing any resource.

Of course, implementers of a dredging project will always conveniently reason out that siltations and sandbar formations will always return to the dredged area after completion of the dredging due to natural phenomenon in a river system.

Dredging projects can always become a lucrative business for dredging contractors with less accurate monitoring and accounting of funds disbursed by the government agency-implementor.

No one can also be held accountable for siltations and sand bar formations to develop in the dredged area even in the immediate aftermath of a dredging project completion. /MP