Ruling on Cebu airport bidding crucial to other PPP projects, says Filinvest

MANILA, Philippines - The tandem of the Filinvest Group of taipan Andrew Gotianun and Changi Airports is confident that the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) would act favorably on its petition to disqualify the best bidder for the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu international airport expansion project due to alleged conflict of interest.

Filinvest Development Corp. president and chief executive officer Josephine Gotianun Yap said the government should preserve the sanctity of the bidding rules for public private partnership (PPP) projects and should disqualify the tandem of Megawide Construction Corp. – GMR Infrastructure of India as well as First Philippine Airports Consortium that includes Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad for violating the bidding rules.

 â€œWe are confident that the Philippine government will preserve the sanctity of the bidding rules since other potential PPP bidders and the local and global business community is keenly monitoring how the bidding process and rules are implemented and managed,” Yap said.

The PPP Center is confident of awarding 15 major PPP projects worth P222 billion before the end of President Aquino’s term in June 2016.

In a letter dated Jan. 2, 2014, the Filinvest Group raised the alleged conflict of interest stating that GMR and Malaysia Airports are or were partners in all of GMR’s airport affiliates in violation of Article 5.6 of the bidding rules.

Specifically, the managing director of MAHB sits as a director in all four GMR airports, namely, Delhi International Airport Private Ltd., GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport Group and GMR Male International Airport (Maldives).

“One of the conflict of interest provisions prohibits a board member or partner of a bidder, consortium member or its affiliates from being directly involved in any capacity in the MCIA bid process for another bidder, consortium member or its affiliates,” Yap stated in the letter.

If the two groups are found violating the bidding rules, they can be disqualified in spite offering the highest bid.

 â€œThe conflict of interest rules apply even to previous board members and partners within two years prior to the publication of the Invitation to Pre-Qualify and Bid for the MCIA Project and also to future board members and partners within one year after award of the Project,” Yap explained.

FDC is calling for the DOTC to exercise its authority to the fullest in ensuring that the bidding rules and its implementing rules and regulations during the pre- and post qualification review are strictly followed to the letter.

The DOTC’s prequalification bids and awards committee (PBAC) is now reviewing information disclosed pertaining to the Megawide-GMR consortium.

“We participated in the MCIA bid because we had trust and confidence in the process and the fairness of the DOTC/MCIAA committee spearheading the bid. We have high regard that the PBAC will continue to show the same fairness and level playing field in the post-qualification stage of the bidding process.”