The four-day visit of the World Bank contingent somehow paid well the over-all cast of characters behind the preparation of the 1^st World Bank Implementation Support Mission in the municipality of Mallig, Isabela where two subprojects are ongoing pilot implementation on top of all other subprojects in Luzon A Cluster.

At the kick-off ceremonies in Zen Hotel Grand Ballroom Hall on September 2, 2015, Samik Sundar Das, World Bank Senior Rural Development Specialist and Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Team Task Leader highlighted the real score behind their mission.

“We are here to listen and learn from you. Let us all work together to improve the  program qualitatively and make sure that the program is implemented on the ground in the right spirit.”

Wrapping- up the four day visit in an exit conference held on September 4, 2015 at the Blue Room of Hotel Roma in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Samik Sundar Das had the meeting went on smooth sailing with the “honest to goodness” observations put on the fore and the corresponding felt need interventions.

Quite aversive that his findings might not buy out the approval of the rest of the group, Mr. Velpula Murahari Reddie, Rural Roads Specialist, expounded on his findings relative to both quality control and regulatory issues.

A specialist on construction of rural roads, he noted that there are cracks found on some spans of the more than 1 kilometer road which was already concreted. He attributed the cracks on the unsystematic practice of mixing concrete at the batching plant.

He likewise observed in some areas the narrowing roadway path ready to be concreted which must be at least 10 meters wide along with the seeming lack of road directional signages.

“These are aspects which need to be examined critically,” Mr. Reddie said.

Another observation he took special note was the lack of official written minutes of meetings conducted at least once a month.

“I have yet to see minutes of meetings conducted with the contractors at least once a month .It must not just be a ritual meeting but a formal one. In such meetings we must establish our benchmarks as our means to immediately identify issues and concerns as well as the actions taken as an offshoot of those reflected on the last minutes of the meeting,” Reddie emphasized adding that such documents required supposedly form an integral part of the project contract.

Corollary, Shruti Gaur, Project Management and HR Specialist, had her long list of annotations as a result of the September 2 breakout sessions per component groups which are attuned to Reddie”s observations.

Gaur mentioned the need for each region to conduct training need assessment of its own staff. Modules for the training shall be prepared either per region or clusterwide as it foresees reaching the peak of projection of accomplishment by next year.

“We need to prepare our staff for the upcoming years through capability building seminars. They shall soon be involved at reviewing a lot more subprojects until actual implementation.”

“How do we expect them (project engineers) to be ably involved at reviewing a lot more subprojects until actual implementation if they fall short of needed training and exposure in the field?,” Gaur posed.

“Anyway,” Dir. Arnel V. De Mesa, PRDP-NPCO National Deputy Project Director, said, “When Dr. Ashok Kumar came a few weeks ago, and it was among his suggestions to give additional capability building trainings for our engineers who mostly have just graduated from college. It is not, however, an issue of lack of competence on their part but rather more of the issue on lack of exposure.”

Director De Mesa apprised the group on the fact that the Mallig farm to market road (FMR)  has so far been the cheapest cost per kilometer  in all of the subprojects in the entire cluster covering the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR),and Regions 1,2,and 3.

“At the start of the PRDP,” De Mesa said,” we were given the guidance that the cost of concreted road per kilometer should not exceed Php 10 million. The Mallig FMR only costs around Php 7 million.”

De Mesa posited that there were a lot of activities which should have been considered and included in the project plan like the issue on slope protection. He also delved on the result of the findings of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regarding the existence of the bridge along the whole stretch of the FMR subproject. According to him such fact should have been included among the factors that bring about additional cost implications.

Raoul Azanza, Rural Infrastructure Engineer, pounded on the issue of using Portland Cement Type 1 P by contractors which is a deviation from what is specified in the contract which is Type 1 only. Portland Type 1 P is the cheaper version of cement which DPWH allows subject to certain conditions only.

“Maybe that is one reason why there are failures in the concrete pavements like the cracks that we have seen. At the batching plant, fine and course aggregates must be separated as there is evidently still a mixture of sand and gravel. It is only then that the desired proper mixture requirement is attained,” Azanza emphasized.

“Our goal is to have good product quality,” Reddie said, “And we are here to help. What we need is sincere implementation…and just tell us on what aspect of trainings you need… we can help you even in the extent of contract management trainings.”

Mr. Samik Sundar Das, on positive note, recommended the possibility of putting in place a “third party quality monitoring system” in which case all team levels may take off to keep improving the whole lot of the system.“Now we have seen a kind of big and potential reputation risks…and we need to manage them. We can do it better when this system would be in place,” Mr. Das concluded.

The Mallig 9.17-kilometer FMR traverses 5 barangays, namely Olango, Siempre Viva Norte, Siempre Viva Sur, Trinidad, and Manano with a total project cost ofPhp62, 452,953.45. At the time of visit, a little more that 1 kilometer single lane stretch had been concreted registering positive work slippage accomplishment. (Ferdinand C. Narciso, RPCO2 InfoACE)