Camarines Norte leads early completion of Kalsada projects

Camarines Norte leads 74 provinces in the early completion of its road projects funded through the P6.5-billion Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran (Kalsada) Program, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has announced. 

The Kalsada is a national incentive program for local road management funded under the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA) with the allocation of funds based on performance.

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

The province, lauded for its 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 mid-July, said 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, and technical and governance capacities, we will see provinces increasingly taking on the programming, budgeting and implementation of infrastructure projects,” Hamada said.

Kalsada provides funding to provinces to upgrade and rehabilitate the quality of their roads. To access these funds, provinces are required to meet good governance and performance standards, as well as 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 (SLRF) projects and percentage of fair-to-good roads.

Camarines Norte Gov. 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,” Tallado said.

The six completed road projects consist of the upgrading of the Daet-San Vicente (1.8 kilometers), Daet-Mambalite ( 1.2 km), Daet-San Lorenzo Ruiz (1.5 km), Jct Talisay-Gabon-Sta. Cruz (1.78 km), Angas-Manguisoc (4.24 km), and Jct San Felipe-Patag (0.28 km) roads.

Set for completion are the upgrading of the Jct Borabod-Awitan, San Nicolas-San Francisco (4 km) and Jct Msr. Basiad (0.99 km) roads.

Hamada said she hopes that 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 added.

The six completed road projects are the first road projects to be completed out of 187 projects. As of June 20, construction is ongoing for 94 projects, six have been issued a 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.