BULA-MINALABAC INTEGRATED AREA DEVELOPMENT

Evaluation covers the period 1/78-6/79 and included review of project documents, observation of project sites, and interviews with project personnel. Phase I construction of irrigation and drainage infrastructure has been seriously impeded by duplicative administrative procedures required to approve contracts and funding. If funds are not disrupted, construction will be completed by the scheduled date, 9/30/81. The full complement of interagency personnel has been assigned to the project. The logframe assumption calling for "all-weather main road access into the entire project area by the end of 1979" will probably not be met before the end of 1980. It is therefore recommended that priority be given to early completion of the Santo Domingo-San Ramon feeder roads -- which will service the first phases of the Bula II project and which include a 200-meter section which is impassable during the rainy season. Architectural and engineering design work, training programs, land consolidation, institutional development, and force account construction are progressing as rapidly as physical construction will permit. Area residents have been active in household relocation, institutional development, and training programs. As a result of the project, there is growing interest elsewhere in region in implementing similar projects. This project has demonstrated that the transfer of central governmental authority to regional and local levels is not easily accomplished. The following steps should be taken: reaffirm the authority of the Project Director and the Project Management Office (PMO); strengthen coordination and backstopping with the Ministry of Agrarian Reform; give priority to the procurement of fuel; reassess interagency personnel requirements; insure adequate funding; reaffirm the assignment of two PMO Deputy Managers; and increase the Project Manager"s authorized disbursement ceiling to P20,000 to permit prompt onsite payment for supplies.