Capitol's bidding committee assures more stringent bidding process

CEBU, Philippines - After making reforms in its procurement process, the newly recreated Bids and Awards Committee of the Cebu provincial government wants to address any 'deficiency' in its previous operations.

"We are trying to look at the whole operation sa BAC, how it has been doing its work in the past, how we can improve, how we can address, I don't wanna call it 'deficiencies.' There are ways of making ourselves more efficient," said BAC chairman Mark Tolentino, the provincial administrator.

He assured that BAC will be more transparent and will observe 'proper' accountability. "Ang gusto man gyud ni Governor (Hilario Davide III) is we really move along the lines of transparency. Those are the things that we are looking at."

The BAC was recently criticized for allegedly rigging the bidding process of the security agency to reportedly favor the Blackpearl Security Agency.

Davide, in his State of the Province Address on Monday, assured that providers in the service sector will now be subjected to a 'more stringent evaluation procedure.'

"I have learned my lesson in the recent security agency issue. The evaluation system is yet a work-in-progress and subject to closer scrutiny-both from within and from you-the public, the media inpartiular," he said.

"The journey of reforms in this area has definitely not been easy. Detractors and critics perversely wish us to fail. As we go through the pains of drastically cleansing our highly vulnerable procurement process, let me assure you that we are moving in the direction of transparency and will always welcome your continued vigilance in this most critical service," he added.

The procurement for the security service provider is now back to square one after Davide declared a failure of bidding in the previous bidding process.

Tolentino said the BAC has already published invitation to bid at the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System. He said the prospective bidders will be invited in a pre-bidding conference on Friday.

"We have the opportunity for the prospective bidders so they have the full idea of what the project is," he added.

The BAC has also worked on the Terms of Reference for the bidding where contracts entered into by winning bidders are only good for a year.

Further, Davide reported that due to the reforms of the procurement process at the BAC, procurement costs of Capitol supplies have been reduced. He referred to the purchase of the schoolbooks which saved the province almost P10 million. — (FREEMAN)