‘Nothing irregular in barangay health station project’

MANILA, Philippines — The contractor of a project of the Department of Health involving the construction of 5,700 barangay health stations in public schools across the country has denied any wrongdoing, saying the DOH is using the issue as an excuse for not paying them.

JBros. Construction said it terminated the contract last March 18 after the DOH failed to provide all the sites for construction and “unjustifiably” refused to heed their request for payment.

“Under the contract and as earlier advertised by the department when it invited bidders... within seven days from notice to proceed, all sites will be made available to the contractor... to complete the project within the provided contract period,” JBros said in a statement.

Three years after the contract was signed in 2015, the contractor said not all project sites were available.

JBros said it billed the DOH on May 15, 2017 and refiled it on Aug. 1, 2017 for completed works worth P1.1 billion.

“These allegations are merely excuses which nevertheless failed to justify their non-payment and lack of action on the progress billing for eight months,” JBros said.

In a report on GMA News online, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III clarified that he did not link JBros to the supposed anomaly.

Duque said he only received a report on the alleged irregularity from a task force that he created.

He bared the supposed anomaly last week, saying  the sites for the P8.1-billion project were “not validated” by the DOH, Department of Education and Department of the Interior and Local Government.