Bidding delayed; bid documents snatched

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines   â€” The bidding for the four generator sets, with an appraised budget contract of P87 million, for the Cyber Center of the Negros Occidental provincial government, was postponed by a day when the bid document of one of the two contractors were allegedly snatched a few minutes before the bidding Tuesday morning.

Two bidders—Gendiesel Philippines Inc. and Dynamic Builders and Construction Co.—participated in the bidding, which had to be deferred because somebody snatched the bid papers of Gendiesel that were placed on the table at the Bids and Awards Committee office at the Capitol.

Lucille Pines, BAC chairman, said the bidding was eventually conducted Wednesday morning, with Gendiesel still able to participate. The winner of the bidding will be announced seven days after the BAC evaluation, she said.

The account manager of Gendiesel, who requested his name be withheld for security reasons, claimed that the incident was a possible sabotage of his firm’s business transaction with the Capitol. “This is not an ordinary snatching, this is transaction-related. I was isolated as one of bidders,” he said.

The complainant narrated that, at the BAC office, a man blocked his way while another snatched the document from the table and ran with it, then handed it to two others waiting on a motorcycle, outside the Provincial Administration Center, fronting the district office of the NBI.

“We ran after them but we weren’t able to catch them,” he lamented, adding that there was no cash inside the stolen document, since the transaction was done through a surety bond.

The appraised contract budget of the project is P87 million: P78 million for the four generator sets, and P9 million for the synchronizing panels.

Gendiesel submitted a total bid of P79,850,888: P71,050,888 for the generator sets and P8.8 million for two units of synchronizing panels; while Dynamic Builders tendered a total bid of P86.9 million— P77,950,000 for the generator sets and P8,950,000 for the synchronizing panels.

Pines said the bids will have to be evaluated to determine if the amounts can be validated with the documents they submitted.

Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson met with the representatives of the two firms a few minutes before the bidding started to ensure there will be no more problems with the bidding.

Pines said it was the first time bid documents had been snatched at the Capitol, and authorities were still investigating the incident.  (FREEMAN)