By Bohol Sunday Post
The General Services Office (GSO) of the provincial government shot down allegations of a supposed bidder who was asking for the postponement of the submission of bid documents involving the purchase of P168 million worth of heavy equipment.
The bidder represented by lawyer Salvador Grupo also cited irregularities in the conduct of the bidding.
The bid in question was that of which the province has scheduled last February 9 which called for participants to bid in the purchase of heavy equipment amounting to P168 million. The province was asking bids for the procurement of a fleet of heavy equipment including back hoes, graders, dump trucks, among others.
According to Grupo, the firm he was representing identified as Kowa Tsosho, Ltd., was robbed of its chances to participate in the bidding when the GSO went ahead with the bidding despite his request to give them time to prepare the bid documents. The lawyer said the bidding process was done in haste in violation of the implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Act.
He cited Section 17.5, Rule VI of the IRR which provides that “prospective bidders shall be given ample time to examine the bidding documents and to prepare the respective bidsâ€.
On the alleged irregularity surrounding the transaction, Grupo expressed suspicion that the supposed bidding was tailor-suited to favor a particular party especially on the choice of the brand or model.
In debunking Grupo’s allegations that the procurement of heavy equipment was a “rigged and craftily manipulated proceeding designed to give undue advantage to favored parties, Engr. Rosalinda Yu of the GSO dismissed the same as totally unfounded, baseless and unfair.
In answering the contention of the Japanese company’s lawyer that where the value of the project involved more than P50 million, bidders are given ample time or at least 50 days to prepare the bid documents, Engr. Yu said this law only applies to the procurement of infrastructure projects as provided in Section 21.2.2 (ii) of the IRR of RA 9184. She added that this provision of law does not apply to the procurement of goods like the purchase of heavy equipment.
In dismissing the claims of Grupo of an alleged bid rigging, Engr. Yu said it was unfortunate that because of the inability of his client to submit its bid documents on time, the Japanese firm engaged the lawyer to unduly put the bidding process in a bad light.
Engr. Yu added she cannot give special treatment to a particular bidder because this would be unfair to the other bidders who dutifully labored to submit their bid documents on time.
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