Sole bidder on province’s heavy equipment wins post qualification

THE winner of the failed bidding late last year for the purchase of P253-million heavy equipment for the infrastructure projects of the Cebu provincial government was the sole bidder who passed the post qualification for having the lowest bid.

The Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) proceeded the opening of bids yesterday after it was postponed last Nov. 14, wherein the joint venture of ConEquip Philippines Inc. and RDAK Transport Equipment Inc. passed the post qualification for placing a bid at P227.4 million or 10 percent lower than the price of the contract.

Lawyer Mark Tolentino, BAC head and provincial administrator, said they considered the bid of ConEquip and RDAK as the lowest calculated bid, but they still have to find out if the companies are also responsive.

“We need to make sure that this is the lowest calculated and responsive bid. If it proves to be responsive, then we will recommend to award the contract to this group,” Tolentino said.

ConEquip had won in last year’s bidding, but it was declared as failure due to alleged overpricing controversy.

During the pre-bidding, five bidders submitted their requirements and documents, but only two of them — the joint venture of ConEquip and Rdak, and D Limitless Vehicle Corp. — proceeded to submit their final documents. However, D Limitless was disqualified in yesterday’s post qualification due to incomplete requirements. Tolentino said that D Limitless did not notarize the omnibus sworn statement.

But Tolentino said that D Limitless still has an option to file a motion for reconsideration in order for their bid to be considered and to pass for post qualification.

Tolentino explained that the post qualification is where the BAC review the documents of the bidders, including the computations.

After three calendar days from Nov. 25, the BAC has seven days to finish the post qualification.