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MANILA - The Department of Health (DOH) breached the contract when it failed to provide the sites needed for its P8.1-billion barangay health station project, the construction firm tapped in the project claimed Wednesday.

In a Senate inquiry into alleged irregularities in the project, lawyer Julieann Jorge, spokesperson of JBros Construction Company, said they terminated the contract for the "Tsekap" project in 2018 because of DOH's failure to comply with its obligations.

"There are two main problems that hampered the implementation of project TSEKAP. The first is the DOH's fundamental breach of contract by failing to deliver possession of all the sites to the contractor," Jorge told senators.

"Second is the DOH's failure to pay the progress billing because of the officials' perhaps gross ignorance of the law, unfair practice, and even capriciousness or maybe even bad faith," the lawyer added, citing the government agency's different interpretations of the contract.

Jorge said the contractor was given 240 calendar days to finish the construction of the units for the project's first phase but the DOH never provided the 3,200 sites as stipulated in the contract, which was signed during the Aquino administration.

A total of 5,700 school-based barangay health stations were supposed to be built in two phases under the Tsekap project. But as of 2018, when the project was terminated, only 270 units have been completed.

A Commission on Audit report earlier said some barangay health stations were constructed in "ineligible and non-workable" project sites that were not fully validated.

But former Health Secretary Janette Garin had said health officials chose project sites by matching the Department of Education's list of public schools with a list of areas that lacked health clinics.

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