I was emailed a four-page letter late last week in the name of a certain Archt. John Ray M. Jimenez to Gov. Hilario Davide III dated June 12, 2018. I’m not sure if the governor did indeed receive this letter and if has responded to the issues raised therein.
But I am intrigued by its contents, which is why I am reprinting certain sections of it in this space. In the interest of fairness, I shall also provide this column’s space for Gov. Davide to respond to the issues raised by this architect next week.
In gist, the Jimenez letter states (and for purposes of brevity I shall combine the paragraphs therein):
“Depending on the appropriate results of the Technical aspects, a financial and economic analysis has to be done and prove that the project is financially feasible, how? (sic). Capitol should have proved that they have the funds to spend on the project, “without sacrificing one or a number of their real mandate”, that is, to provide basic services to their constituents. Lastly, Capitol should have proved that they can recover the expenditures through rental, whether using own funds or getting a loan. On this aspect, aside from the poor performance of Capitol on any of their economic enterprise projects (CIUDAD/CICC, etc.), a Government entity should never compete with the private sector on the provisions of Office/Commercial spaces to private groups.”
On the aspect of selecting the procurement consultant, Jimenez writes:
“The selection of the Technical Group/Consultants is very critical for projects of the nature as this Capitol project, hence, should have been diligently exercised. A colleague of Gov. Davide, wrote to Capitol Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), for reconsideration to participate in the Consultant selection, but was denied for the reasons that the deadline for submission ha(d) passed. Checking the Philgeps website showed that Capitol advanced the deadline of submission of documents, as compared to the schedules specified in the Philgeps. R.A. 9184 allows extensions for procurement time for valid reasons and with our extensive experience in Contractor/Consultant procurement selection, extending the schedule is normal but never (is) its shortening allowed.”
“Officially, only two firms were able to submit Proposals for the procurement: One, Palafox and Associates; Two, AS Enriquez Consultancy. Without batting an eyelash, the BAC should have considered: (1) On (the basis) of propriety to undertake the services: the Architectural Firm should have been an obvious choice over an Engineering Firm, because of the nature of the project; (2) on known experience and track record, Palafox Architects is a nationally and internationally renowned Architectural group with more than 20 offices worldwide and definitely much more superior in terms of experience and track record. The BAC disqualified the Palafox group based on Technicality.
“In the overall process of the selection and recommendations for award, the BAC seemed not to know that the “essence” of selection for Consultants or Contractors for any Government project “is to determine the most advantageous proposal to Government.” Had the BAC religiously followed the post qualification process of the procurement requirements, they did not need to look outside of Cebu, to evaluate the track record of this Engineering Firm. (Here the writer goes on to list a number of projects that were carried out by this Engineering Firm which to summarize he alleges as at best problematic and at worse, did not achieve the intended result, including the allegation that “this Consultant was fired ‘on air’ by (former) Gov. Gwen Garcia during the implementation of the CICC project in 2006 for below par performance, expected of a government priority project.”
Finally, the Jimenez writes—and this I agree—that Capitol “has selected a project that is “not a priority and not appropriate”, compared to the more needed basic services projects in transportation, water supply, alternative power, health services and the development of Municipalities, and (that) they have selected a Technical group short of experience and capability of producing studies and designs that should conform to appropriate architectural/heritage, financial and social/environmental concerns.
I will wait for Gov. Davide to respond to these allegations and will print them promptly in next week’s column.
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