BFP head probed on P69-M 'scam'

Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim ordered yesterday the acting director of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) investigated for the allegedly anomalous bidding of some P69 million worth of firehoses and nozzles.

Lim acted on the complaint of six businessmen who accused acting BFP director Raymundo Padua of having orchestrated a "ghost bidding" in favor of a certain supplier.

In a letter to Lim, Karl Franker-berger of Winshear International Phils., Efren Hidalgo and Tony San Pedro of CTK Inc., Oscar Cura of Ros P. Trading, Rolando Perez of Arrow Trading and Ethel Encarnacion of Manila Gas Corp. said an official of the prequali-fication and bids negotiation and awards committee, Senior Fire Superintendent Eleoterio Ittu-riaga, declared a failure of bidding, paving the way for a negotiated contract.

The businessmen questioned the committee's move. "How were they able to declare a failure of bidding when there was only one bidding conducted? To declare a failure of bidding and subsequently allow the BFP to enter into a negotiated contract with a dealer, there should be at least three failed biddings," Cura said.

The businessmen, whose firms were disqualified from the bidding, accused the committee of giving incorrect information on the schedule of bidding and selling the pre-bid forms in limited quantities.

Some members of the committee, they alleged, limited the sale of the forms to suppliers whose qualifications to participate were "questionable."

The bidding committee, they further alleged, failed to answer queries regarding the technical specifications of the materials and equipment that were bid out, as well as provide the suppliers with the minutes of its meetings.

Lim earlier had instructed Padua to initiate measures to rid the BFP of graft and corruption.

"Unless we are serious in pursuing our reform program, nothing will come out of it. People will not believe us and will doubt our efforts to fight graft and corruption," Lim said.