Audit report slams road works’ coordination

The Commission of Audit (CA) issued a new report yesterday which heavily criticized the work of the “Road Works Coordination Group.”

In the report, the CA states that the work of the group “in order coordinate and conciliate [the road works] are ineffective and there are also shortfalls on the administrative procedures that analyze and authorize licenses [for works on the public streets].”

Additionally, the CA remarks that the weekly meeting conducted by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) lacks accuracy and that there are many failures in inspection procedures.

The report specifically addresses the years of 2014 and 2015, noting that the number of complaints was very high due to several disruptions provoked by the frequent roadworks across the region.

From the report it is possible to acknowledge that during those two years, there were a total of 3,458 works involving trench digging on public roads, out of which a total of 94.19 percent were under the supervision of private entities (3,257).

Studying this, the CA found that in addition to the aforementioned ineffectiveness, the “Coordination Group” was a body without a binding nature, merely given duties of coordination and communication between the parties without being able to confirm if several works were completed at the same location within the two- year period.

The CA says: “The group has no capability to enforce to the members a works calendar.” In this way the CA considers the work of this group “not suitable of reaching any useful result […] no matter how [numerous] the members that compose it, or how significant the resources invested.”

The CA also remarked that the government entities have not respected the law, leaving the decision on when the works are done in the hands of the private entities while not making use of the sanctions mechanism to force the companies to adhere to deadlines.

IACM is one of the most strongly criticized public entities in the report. The CA notes that the bureau has not fulfilled its duties in following up the works, such as conducting appropriate inspections to guarantee that the works are completed according to what was planned and licensed.

The audit report mentions that in the cases analyzed by the commission, there was a total of over 1,000 days of delay from original deadlines that passed without any action from IACM services.

Also part of the “Road works coordination group,” the Transport Bureau (DSAT) director, Lam Hin San was questioned yesterday morning on the topic during a DSAT press conference.

Lam responded by saying that he had not had time to read the report in detail. Nevertheless he noted that, “we have been reinforcing our work in that regard [of the road works coordination], especially for the major scale works.”

As an example, Lam mentioned, “at this moment we have a request for the licensing of two works that we are trying [to ensure] are not done at the same time (in the Northern district) because it’s a very busy area.” He also said that most of these road works “are things directly related with people’s lives so we need to authorize many of them… Nevertheless we seek balance.”

IACM acknowledges ‘poor coordination’

Commenting on the report issued by the Commission of Audit (CA) on the sidelines of a meeting held yesterday afternoon, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) president José Tavares said, “the problems result from inefficient supervision and coordination between IACM and other government departments,” namely the Transport Bureau (DSAT). Taveres also added that “four inspectors who did not do their work carefully, back in 2014 and 2015, have already been removed from their positions and IACM has started disciplinary processes against them.” “I hope the [CA] can understand that we are improving on this process,” he said, noting that IACM does not fully agree with the contents of the CA report.