DPWH 2nd engineering district projects approval upgraded to P50 M’s worth

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff reporter

San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte—Of the 50 Dept. of Public Works and Highways’ engineering districts nationwide that were authorized to approve detailed engineering design, as-staked and as-built plans, Ilocos Norte’s DPWH 2^nd Engineering District is the lone district in Region I that has been granted.   

DPWH Department Order No. 41 states that this is in line with the decentralization of the government in order to provide for more effective and expeditious implementation of projects.

Based on the result of the assessment conducted by the Bureau of Design on the design capability of the DPWH field offices, the limits of the delegated authority of the district engineers of the district offices to approve detailed engineering, as-staked and as-built plans with respect to the locally-funded infrastructure projects within their respective districts were increased to P50 million.

The district offices include CAR with 4, NCR (1), Region I (1), Region II (3), Region III (12), Region IV-A (1), Region IV-B (3), Region VI (1), Region VII (1), Region III (1), Region IX (4), Region X (7), Region XI (8) and Region XII (3). 

Reacting to this, DPWH 2^nd engineering district head Engr. Mathias Malenab announced that his district is one of the 50 engineering districts nationwide who can avail of the said department order.

Mr. Malenab said that due to the hard work of all his personnel, specifically the planning and design engineers, the DPWH 2^nd engineering district office was the lone district in Region I that was upgraded in terms of authority to approve detailed engineering design, as-staked and as-built plans.

This means, Mr. Malenab explained, that he can now approve plans up to P50 million worth of projects as compared before where he can only approve plans up to P20 million and then bring plans to the Regional Office.

With this development, Mr. Malenab considers it a big help for the 2^nd engineering district in terms of projects and facilitating easier preparations for their implementation.

The evaluation was conducted by Engineers from the Bureau of Designs with a set of criteria including plan preparations, plan up keeping, plan designs and others.

Mr. Malenab said any type of infra projects provided it does not exceed P50 million can be approved by him whether the said project was already funded or still to be funded.

Effectivity of the order was set last March 12 upon its release.

Meanwhile, the DPWH 2^nd Engineering Office conducted their first ever Lakbay Aral/Team Building held April 30-May 2, 2015 and was approved by DPWH Undersecretary Romeo S. Momo.  

The district has a total 74 employees who went to Cagayan and Isabela district offices and the DPWH Region II Office. A fellowship night and parlor games were also conducted with the theme “To foster greater camaraderie and teamwork”.

Mr. Malenab thanked the municipal mayors of San Nicolas, Banna and Nueva Era for lending their respective coasters.