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Official Publication of the Philippine Information Agency Bicol Regional Office, in cooperation with the RIAC-REDIRAS - RDC Bicol



Thursday, June 30, 2016

Camarines Norte leads in early completion of KALSADA projects

MANILA, June 30 (PIA) -- Camarines Norte leads 74 provinces in early completion of its road projects funded through the P6.5 billion KALSADA Program, a national incentive program for local road management funded under the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA) with the allocation of funds based on performance, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced.

DBM officials joined the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Camarines Norte today for the final inspection of KALSADA projects under the 2016 Local Government Support Fund.

Camarines Norte, an awardee for outstanding Local Public Financial Management for the past two-years, has completed six of its eight KALSADA road projects amounting to P100,963,429.02. The remaining two projects will be completed by the middle of July, according to Maxine Tanya M. Hamada, DBM Assistant Secretary for Monitoring and Evaluation.

“We laud the early completion of the road projects in Camarines Norte. This case gives us a clear perspective on the intersection of good governance practices and improving the delivery of basic services in local governments. With better project management, technical and governance capacities, we will see provinces increasingly take on programming, budgeting and implementation of infrastructure projects,” Hamada said.

KALSADA or Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran provides funding to provinces to upgrade and rehabilitate the quality of local roads. To access the funds, provinces are required to meet good governance and performance standards, as well as to establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for their road projects. The program’s management strategy and capacity development interventions encouraged provinces to come up with their Provincial Road Network Development Plans, on which they based their priority core road projects.

Hamada explained that Camarines Norte is one of the provinces that received a higher allocation for KALSADA projects on account of its high score on the performance criteria of percentage completion of Special Local Road Fund or SLRF projects and percentage of fair to good roads.

Camarines Norte Governor Edgardo Tallado said he intends to complete the concreting of the province’s roads “all the way to the barangay.”

“We are glad that KALSADA helped us with the rehabilitation of our provincial roads. This assistance ensures the connectivity of the towns in Camarines Norte and enhances the economic opportunity of our province. We hope to be able to use local funds for the rehabilitation and maintenance of our smaller roads,” said Tallado.

The six completed road projects consists of the upgrading of the following roads: Daet-San Vicente Road (1.8 km), Daet-Mambalite Road ( 1.2 km), Daet-San Lorenzo Ruiz Road (1.5 km), Jct Talisay-Gabon-Sta Cruz Road (1.78 km), Angas-Manguisoc Road (4.24 km), and Jct San Felipe-Patag Road (0.28 km). Set for completion mid-July are two projects on the upgrading of Jct Borabod-Awitan, San Nicolas-San Francisco Road (4.0 km) and Jct Msr. Basiad Road (0.99 km).

Hamada added that she hopes provinces like Camarines Norte can provide technical assistance and governance oversight to component local government units (LGUs).

“This will address the slow spending of national government as we shift more infrastructure spending to frontline government through programs like KALSADA,” she said.

The six completed road projects of Camarines Norte are the first road projects to be completed out of a total of 187 projects. As of June 20, construction is ongoing for 94 projects, six projects have been issued Notice to Proceed, and 53 are undergoing procurement.

A total of P5,563,555,759.73 was released as of June 20 for 65 provinces with 180 projects, according to Hamada.

“Completion of all the requirements for release such as the preparation of detailed engineering designs and geotagging and uploading of videos of their proposed roads on openroads.gov.ph, as well as the conduct of pre-procurement activities ensured the readiness of the projects for immediate fund release as soon as the 2016 GAA was signed into law,” Hamada said. (MAL/DBM Release/PIA5)


- See more at: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/3211467275274/camarines-norte-leads-in-early-completion-of-kalsada-projects#sthash.o3OjFilq.dpuf

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