When the Inayawan landfill gates close at 4 p.m., another group of Department of Public Services personnel take over to level piles of wastes dumped by the city’s garbage trucks. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
THE Cebu City government’s P77.8 million garbage-hauling contract has been awarded to Jomara Konstruckt Corp., the same service provider tapped by the city since December last year.
A Notice to Award, signed by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, was already given to Jomara last Wednesday following the recommendation of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
BAC Chairman Ronaldo Malacora said Jomara passed the post-qualification process conducted by BAC’s Technical Working Group (TWG).
“They complied with all the requirements and all the terms that we set in our purchase request,” he explained.
BAC made the favorable recommendation of Jomara during their meeting last Tuesday.
Malacora said they are now waiting for Jomara to submit their performance bond to the city so they can already get and sign the Purchase Order (PO) for the new contract.
The performance bond is equivalent to five percent of the total contract price if they decide to submit it in the form of manager’s or cashier’s check or in cash. If they decide to submit it through a surety bond, he said it will be equivalent to 30 percent of the total contract price.
Jomara submitted a bid of P1,350 per ton of garbage hauled. This was only the second lowest bid since Pasajero Motors Corp. (Pamocor) submitted the lowest bid of P1,344.
But the latter was disqualified by BAC which found out that their transfer station in Pulangbato does not have an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), among others.
Pamocor appealed their disqualification but this was also denied by BAC as they were not satisfied by the contractor’s explanation.
While Pamocor can still elevate their appeal to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, it may not be granted anymore.
“That will not be entertained anymore since there is already a Notice of Award for Jomara. And I think they (Pamocor) have also manifested that they will not appeal it to the mayor anymore,” Malacora said.
Sought for comment on the awarding of the contract, Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera said he is happy that the deal has been completed.
Jomara’s contract is good for the next three to four months.
But Garganera said he hoped that in the next bidding, BAC will be even more stricter by requiring interested service providers to have transfer stations that are really certified by the DENR.
This after he received a letter from DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) which said that there are actually no transfer station within Cebu City that has been granted with an ECC.
Jomara is currently using the transfer station of EVO Envirosolutions located in Barangay Inayawan.
EMB-7 regional director William Cuñado said in his letter that while there are no transfer stations with an ECC in the city, there are some facilities that have an ECC but for different purpose.
Sought for comment on this, Malacora said that as far as BAC is concerned, they were presented by Jomara with an ECC for EVO Envirosolutions.
He said it is possible that the ECC was for a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).
But nevertheless, he said it was accepted by BAC because they only said in the terms of reference that the facility should be able to present a valid
ECC.
If there are problems, he said it should be answered by Jomara.