Construction firm denies anomaly in building DOH barangay health stations, demands 11.6-B payment

The construction firm involved in the Department of Health’s (DOH) barangay health stations project has denied the Commission on Audit (COA) report of alleged irregularities in the project.

The project contractor JBros Construction Corp. said that it terminated the contract with the DOH because the latter failed to provide all the sites for the construction.

“Under the contract, and as earlier advertised by the Department when it invited bidders to bid for this project, it will provide all sites to the contractor within seven days from Notice to Respond (NTP) to make it possible for the latter to complete the project within the provided contract period,” JBros said.

The firm also added that it billed the DOH on May 15, 2017 and refiled it on Aug. 1, 2017 for the completed works on Phase 1 worth more than P1.6 billion but remained unpaid.

JBros said that it terminated the contract “for fear of of its accumulating operational and overhead expenses.”

The firm said that DOH has not officially communicated to the company with regards to their progress billing “except now and only to the media after JBros submitted its Notice of Termination on DOH on March 13, 2018.”

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

The firm also denied allegations that it was involved in the alleged forging of documents with regards to the project’s contract.

“This is very serious and potentially libelous allegation and we dare [Secretary Francisco] Duque [III] to prove this,” it said.