Mid-stream correction.”  “Cost revaluation.”

These  are  convenient  euphemisms   used  by crooks for failing to factor in their “take” or -- to borrow a local term made popular by ZTE-broadband whistleblower Jun Lozada – tongpats.  

When they get lucky and manage to get their way, the result is atrocious cost overruns that they bill the government.

The tax-paying public is made to pay thrice  – the original cost, the additional billings, and the often lousy projects, many of which are not completed.

This triple whammy has so outraged a lawmaker that he strongly urged President Aquino to run after project engineers behind the hundreds of millions of pesos in cost overruns for changing the original plans in the construction of bridges and other infrastructure projects.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, an ally of President Aquino in the House of Representatives, cited the P112.5-million Abaton-Maidlang II Bridge in Calapan City whose cost more than doubled because the original design and engineering plans were not followed.

“Despite this, that bridge allegedly collapsed barely five years after it was completed,” Valencia said in reaction to a  Commission on Audit report on the projects financed by official development assistance funds.

“The project engineers liable for the cost overruns have a lot of explaining to do, and I believe an intervention from the President is necessary,” Valencia was quoted by a broadsheet as saying.

It appeared that the Department of Public Works and Highways has decided to build a new bridge instead of refurbishing Abaton-Maidlang II, which it estimated to cost at least P163 million.

The CoA earlier reported that the cost overruns on the ODA-financed roads and bridges built in 2008 to 2010 reached as high as 86.6 percent.

“Additional costs and expenses bloated the project costs by P10.898 billion due to delayed implementation of the various ODA-funded projects,” the commission said.

The agency said the change in orders, the revision of the original engineering plans, and the late release of counterpart funds by the government delayed the implementation of the foreign-funded public works projects and bloated their cost by over P10 billion.

Here’s an idea: Why don’t we require all participating bidders in any government project to post a performance bond which could only be redeemed when a specific project had been completed according to agreed specifications?

This would guarantee quality project completion and put fly-by-night contractors permanently out of business.