Provincial General Services Office Head Jone Siegfred Sepe, who sits as vice chairperson of the Capitol’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), said they have referred the project back to the Provincial Engineering Office for reevaluation and to determine if there is a need to further adjust its approved budget contract. CDND Photo/Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — With three failed biddings since 2018, the construction of the four-story steel parking building within the Capitol compound may now entail a higher cost.
The project was originally pegged at an Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) of P84.4 million in the first two biddings done in 2018 and in February this year.
But both biddings failed because the lowest bidders were disqualified during the post-qualification process.
It was adjusted to P91 million by the Provincial Engineering Office (PEO) for its third bidding in the first week of April.
The third bidding, which was done in a negotiated procurement process, once again failed after the two participating bidders both placed bid amounts higher than the ABC. The negotiated procurement process supposedly shortened the bidding procedure by bypassing the pre-bidding process.
Under a negotiated procurement process, participating bidders will only need to submit first its financial proposal for the project and will only be asked to comply with the technical and legal requirements once they are declared as the lowest qualified bidder.
“Ang ilang gi-cite didto kay nisaka na ang presyo sa mga steel bars kay kasagaran sa mga puthaw kay i-import man gud na. Because of inflation, Train (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) law and peso-dollar exchange, nausab na gyud ang presyo ba so they think dili siya doable at that ABC of P91 million,” said General Services Office Head Jone Siegfred Sepe in an interview with CDN Digital.
(The bidders cited that the price of steel bars have now increased because most of these materials are imported. Because of inflation, implementation of the Train law and the peso-dollar exchange, prices have changed so they think that the ABC of P91 million is not doable.)
Sepe, who sits as vice chairperson of the Capitol’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), said they have referred the project back to the Provincial Engineering Office to reevaluate if there is a need to adjust the ABC for the project.
“Among gibalik karon sa engineering to reevaluate their final program of works (POW) para makapagawas sila sa ilang new ABC. Naa man gud nay DPWH standard nga pricing,” Sepe explained. / celr