The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system will cover a lot of routes that are being serviced by passenger jeepneys. (CDN PHOTO / JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Bidding for technical services not completed; Tomas to follow up with DOTR
Cebu City’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project hit a snag as one of the papers for one of its consultants wasn’t signed by former transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.
The concern was raised by Cebu BRT project head Rafael Yap in a meeting with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and officials of the World Bank and the French Development Agency yesterday morning.
“The consultant was supposed to provide technical support. They provide services like institutional capacity building, review and coordination of consultants outputs, etc.,” Yap said yesterday.
It was found out that the bidding for the technical support consultant conducted by the former Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in the first quarter of this year was not completed.
This meant the highest rated bidder was unable to take on the project until now.
Yap said the DOTC–now the Department of Transportation (DoTR)– was only at the post-evaluation stage of the bidder’s technical capabilities, and the bidding was not actually finished.
Yap said the technical support consultant is an important part of the BRT project since they will act as a manager of all the other consultants for the project.
“It will now depend on the new bids and awards committee (BAC) of the new administration. It can delay the project for six months or up to more than one year if they decide that there should be a re-bidding of the consultant,” Yap said.
He said if it’s possible to just finish the evaluation of the previous bidding, there wouldn’t be any delay.
Yap said representatives of World Bank were “concerned” about the delay that’s why they met with the mayor yesterday.
The P10.6 billion Cebu BRT project is funded by the World Bank through a loan grant to the national government.
During their meeting, Mayor Osmeña agreed to help follow up on the status of the consultant with the national government.
The mayor said he immediately called Abaya asking what happened to the procurement, and Abaya told him that he couldn’t recall any problem with the bidding.
Abaya said he will check on this with the undersecretary in-charge of DOTC’s procurement processes.