BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan vehemently denied the local government is favouring a specific hauler in the hauling of the city’s residual waste to the sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac just because it had been a continuous player in the said activity, saying the recent public bidding conducted by the City General Services Office on the renewal of the hauling contract last February failed because there was only a lone bidder.
The local chief executive said the annual renewal of the hauling contract of the city with its current hauler, Camilo Trucking Services, has always been subjected to public bidding but there since there are no other bidders, the award of the contract to the complying and responsive bidder had to consummated to sustain the hauling of the city’s residual waste outside the city.
“If the members of the City Council know of some haulers who can comply with the terms of reference for the hauling of the city’s residential waste, then they must encourage these haulers to bid and try to help in reducing the expenses of the local government in the hauling of the garbage to the sanitary landfill in Tarlac,” Domogan stressed.
He explained the primary condition of the terms of reference is for the hauler to have a staging area where the residual waste will be temporarily dumped before being loaded onto the hauler’s trucks bound for Capas, Tarlac.
While there was a previous bidder that participated in the bidding process who declared that his staging area was in Camp 7, the Mayor said the proposed staging area of the supposed winning hauler did not pass the stringent standards of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), thus, the contract was not awarded to him.
Domogan argued the contract for the hauling of the city’s residual waste is not being submitted to the local legislative body for confirmation because it is clearly provided in the pertinent rules and regulations that appropriations for specific programs of the city will no longer be subject to confirmation if it is already provided in the budget while those generic appropriations must have their contracts subject to confirmation of the council.
According to him, the appropriation for the hauling of the city’s residual waste is under the environmental and sanitary services account which include the hauling of garbage and tipping fees pursuant to existing circulars from the Commission on Audit (COA), thus, it no longer needs the confirmation of the local legislative body when spent by the City General Services Office for such purposes.
Because of the failure of the previous bidding process, the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) will again re-bid the hauling of garbage that might result in serious delays compromising the current hauling which in turn could lead to a temporary stoppage of the hauling existing contractor creating serious repercussions to the city’s garbage disposal concerns.
By Dexter A. See
