CAPITOL officials yesterday said the bidding for the purchase of heavy equipment was done “impartially and transparently” and should move forward.
There’s no need to hold off awarding the P250-million contract to the winning bidder Conequip Philippines, said Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino, chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
“The BAC has already done its part and is now awaiting authorization from the Provincial Board for Gov. Hilario P. Davide III to enter into a contract with the winning bidder,” he said.
The bid documents are with the Provincial Board (PB) ad hoc committee, chaired by PB Member Grecilda Sanchez.
Allegations of overpricing surfaced in a Sun.Star news report that the same model of six-wheeler dump truck from the supplier was offered by another company, Mighty Brothers Heavy Equipment, for P2.6 million or half the winning bid price, to a businessman.
According to the report, the owner of Mighty Brothers was related to Conequip.
Tolentino, in a press conference, said the two could not be compared since Mighty Brothers did not participate in the bidding for supply of heavy equipment to Cebu province and the issue was never raised during the four-month bidding process.
The questions arose three weeks after the Notice of Award was issued to Conequip Philippines as the bidder with the lowest calculated response
“ If Mighty Brothers really is related to Conequip, I am sure the industry would know this. But it was not made an issue when documents were presented to us,” said Tolentino.
“In fact, TKC Heavy Industries is related with Conequip but they competed against each other,” he said. TKC was among the first five companies that dropped bids for the supply contract but was initially disqualified.
The Capitol’s BAC came under fire after it disqualified two bidders, RDAK Transport Equipment Inc. and Civic Merchandising, and decided to award the contract to Conequip Philippines.
RDAK filed a motion for reconsideration but was denied on Nov. 10 because it did not comply with technical specifications for brand new 4×2 dump trucks and legal requirements.
The BAC also found out that RDAK and its partner N.S. Lee Construction did not submit a valid tax clearance and “can be held administratively liable for the submission of falsified documents.”
“Even without going into the offer of RDAK and N.S. Lee Construction, they will still have to be post-disqualified for its failure to comply with the legal requirement,” said the BAC report approved by Governor Davide.
RDAK also questioned the choice of Conequip as a supplier offering heavy equipment from China as against RDAK’s offer of branded units like Isuzu form Japan.
Capitol officials yesterday said quality of the equipment was important and that for heavy equipment, G-7 standards were set in a conference with all bidders.
“Prospective bidders were informed that if China products can qualify for the G-7 or G-20 Standards, then the body will accept their offer. Passing quality standards is the major consideration; country of origin is incidental,” they said in a Capitol FAQ briefing sheet.
The winning bidder is “the bidder with the lowest calculated responsive bid (LCRB)”. It is misleading to name the highest or lowest bidder. The committee post-qualifies the bidders in accordance with the criteria composed of legal, technical and financial requirements, said the BAC officials.
The province plans to buy a fleet of heavy equipment, including eight dump trucks.
Jone Siegfried Sepe, OIC of the Provincial General Services Office (PGSO), said RDAK offered the lowest bid at P5 million per dump truck followed by Conequip with P5.123 million, and Civic Merchandising with P5.138 million.
“I don’t know where the comment of overpricing came from. The way we see it, all of them offered similar prices. So all of them are overpriced?” said Sepe.
Sepe said there could never be “overpricing” since the BAC conducted a pre-canvass to set a benchmark for the unit price.
Tolentino said all three bidders offered overall bids below the approved budget for the contract.
“They gave us their specifications and we looked at their pricing, specifically the dump trucks. They have more or less the same offer so we have no reason to say otherwise,” he said.
The prices quoted by the last three remaining bidders were not far from each other at P237,168,000.00, P235,050,000.00, and P250,600,336.00 .
They were all lower than the benchmark rate of P252.6 million based on a pre-canvass by the Engineering Office with suppliers of reputable brands.
Sepe said it was beyond the BAC’s function to find out if Mighty Brothers is connected with Conequip.
He said the BAC only asks for documents from bidders that prove they are capable of supplying particular items.
What’s important to the committee, he added, is to know whether bidders are legally compliant.
This includes the submission of a mayor’s permit, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration, a list of ongoing and completed projects, and audited financial statements for the last two years, among others.