In an interview, Songsong said DPW should not be blamed for unspent capital improvement funds since it is not the agency assigned to administer them.
DPW, he added, has been moving ahead with CIPs since they started outsourcing jobs to private contractors.
DPW’s lack of technical staff has affected locally and federally funded projects.
Since last year, however, Songsong said they have been addressing their lack of personnel by contracting some of their services and projects.
He said four federal projects outsourced to private engineering and construction firms are progressing well.
These include highway projects on Tinian and Rota.
DPW still has its own highway engineers but they are “tied up” with other ongoing highway projects, Songsong said.
“When we implement projects, we do it not just for the sake of implementing something — we also monitor it,” he added.
Two years ago, the contracts of five nonresident engineers and staff members were not renewed after the Legislature decided not to pass a measure that would have allowed DPW to continue hiring nonresident workers.
The previous administration warned that the lack of skilled foreign workers would put DPW’s technical services division in peril.
