Lawmaker backs call for a review of Maynilad bidders

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. supported yesterday the call of a group of non-government organizations for a review of the qualifications, capabilities and track record of prospective buyers of Maynilad Water Services Inc. before its rebidding.

Maynilad holds the concession to supply water in the west zone of Metro Manila.

Pimentel said Congress should be open to the request of the consumers group, Katipunan ng Mga Anak ng Bayan (Kaakbay), for an inquiry into the rebidding process in view of alleged attempts to rig the government-supervised auction.

Kaakbay, one of the pre-qualified bidders, earlier attempted to change the bidding rules to conceal its lack of financial capability. The alleged attempt was discovered by employees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System which is overseeing the rebidding.

"It is important that bidding of government contracts should pass the test not only of necessity but of trustworthiness," Pimentel said in a statement.

"That means that bidding should be a process to weed out the unqualified, surrogates who stand as proxies of monopolies and opportunists who see not public service but only profits at the end of the day."

Kaakbay has called on the MWSS to put off the rebidding of 84 percent equity of Maynilad due to concerns about the capabilities of the pre-qualified bidders and the need to review the scope of services of the concession.

MWSS has accredited the following bidders: DM Consunji and Metro Pacific Group; Manila Water Co. (the current concessionaire at the east zone), Noonday Asset Management Asia of Singapore; and Karunakan Ramchand of India.

The MWSS is set to notify on Dec. 7 the qualified bidders if their technical bids have passed the criteria set by the government. The following day, MWSS will be opening their financial bids and on Dec. 13, it will issue the notice of award to the winning bidder.

Pimentel noted that at present, Manila Water charges its customers P19.73 per cubic meter of water, up 750 percent from P2.32 pcm, through a series of 12 increases.

On the other hand, the current water rate for Maynilad is P32.93 pcm up 563 percent from P4.96 pcm in 1997, through a series of four increases.

Kaakbay reported that Maynilad, to date, has not paid it concession fees estimated at one time to be P40 billion.

Aside from this, the MWSS was forced to take over more than P10 billion in debts to the Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the World Bank that should have been shouldered by Maynilad.

Pimentel stressed the need to improve and strengthen bidding rules and procedures to ensure that the failed Maynilad concession is not repeated.

"Transparency, therefore, is the name of the game. Whoever is holding the bidding process must inform the public of the rules it has imposed on the process. The name of the people in corporation or companies who join it and the results of the bidding," Pimentel said.