Go signal given for unsolicited proposal on SRP joint venture

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City now has the go signal of the Commission on Audit to make use of the submission of unsolicited proposals for the joint venture transactions over the South Road Properties.

Joel Mari Yu, managing director of the Cebu Investment and Promotion Center, said that they now have a go signal from COA to pursue joint venture transactions by asking interested clients to submit unsolicited proposal.

A year ago, Yu said that their attention was called by COA on the said method as it accordingly disregarded the process of public bidding requirement on projects and services.

“At least now they also agree that the publishing of the unsolicited proposal for the joint venture is the same as public bidding since you are also inviting others to submit their respective competitive challenge,” Yu said.

Yu also said that an unsolicited proposal is better than the actual public bidding process considering that everything is negotiated to the disadvantage of the city.

“We don’t just accept their proposal even if the price is right, but we also make sure that we also agree with what they intend to do with the property at SRP,” Yu said.

He further said that the aim of the city government is to let the private sector manage most of the things.

In the SRP, the first joint venture contract is the one with Filinvest Land, Inc. which submitted an unsolicited proposal to pour in P25-billion investment over 50.6 hectares there.

Only the provincial government made intent of submitting a competitive challenge, but was rejected twice because of the lack of jurisdiction or identity.

According to the Joint Venture Selection Committee, Capitol is not a private entity.

Services for water at the SRP are also to be run by the private sector and still under a joint venture agreement.

Cebu City is set to close another deal with a company prior to the end of this year, which is also under joint venture. – Ferliza C. Contratista/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)