BUGUIAS, Benguet – Some contractors who participated in the recent conduct of public bidding of various infrastructure projects within the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works and Highways – Benguet Engineering District 2 exposed the alleged attempts by members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to rig the process by reportedly disqualifying them on mere technicalities in favor of supposed favored contractors.
A neophyte contractor, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, accused the newly composed BAC for reportedly disqualifying his construction company on grounds of the wrong addressee considering the sudden replacement of the BAC chairman and members.
He narrated that the bidding documents that he dropped during the scheduled bidding of various infrastructure projects within the jurisdiction of the said office last December 3, 2019, specifically for the project rehabilitation and upgrading of a portion of the Baguio-Bontoc road worth P9.5 million was addressed to Engr. Michael Big-asen, the former BAC chairman, but the BAC allegedly returned his documents during the process considering that the same was disqualified considering that it was addressed to the wrong person as the new BAC chairman at that time was already Engr. Eduardo C. Galanza.
“We will not take this sitting down. We are now consulting our lawyers on what will be the appropriate legal steps that will be taken against the erring BAC members to teach them a lesson the hard way,” the contractor stressed.
He claimed that it was the first time for his company to participate in supposed to be competitive public bidding of infrastructure projects that will be implemented in the different parts of the province but it was unfortunate that his firm was disqualified by mere technicalities and not on the merits of the bid documents that were submitted for evaluation and assessment.
Another contractor, who also requested anonymity for personal reasons, claimed that he participated in the previous public bidding that was conducted by the BAC of DPWH-BED 2 but he was also allegedly disqualified due to mere technicality, specifically the reported surplus in the numbers in the code of the project subjected to bidding.
According to him, the title of the project as stated in the innovation to bid was correctly placed in the company’s bid documents but in the code that was copied, there was an additional “0” that was inserted which compelled the BAC to allegedly disqualify the same on grounds of mere technicality that raised doubts on the credibility of the conduct of transparent and accountable biding process which is contrary to the anti-corruption campaign of the present administration.
The contractors who exposed the alleged controversial bidding process alleged that it seems that there are already pre-identified contractors to whom the projects that are being subjected to public bidding will be awarded since there was an instance that after one of them was disqualified on mere technicality, there was already a lone bidder for the project that was being bid out.
The contractors underscored that they are willing to pursue whatever legal action that will be undertaken just to show to the BAC members of DPWH-BED 2 that there had been obvious attempts on their part to reportedly rig the bidding process in favor of anointed contractors who want to corner the implementation of multi-million infrastructure projects within the jurisdiction of the said office.
By HENT
