MANILA, Philippines — Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto said the city saved over P150 million from July to November this year through “honest to goodness” public bidding for its goods and services.
This became possible after Sotto ordered that all Approved Budget of Contracts (ABC) should be reduced by a minimum of 10 percent.
“As a result, competition is high and prices go down. Previously, almost all winning bids were within 1% the ABC (red flag ito ayon sa ibang auditor). Now, it is common to see winning bids that are 10-50% lower,” the Pasig mayor said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Sotto cited that they saved over P1.8 million or 25 percent for the improvement of Kapasigan Barangay Hall after gaining a winning bid of P5.5 million which is lower than ABC’s P7.38 million.
For the city’s engineering department, Sotto said the winning bid costs P212,600 which is lower than ABC’s bid worth P571,680. He said the city saved over P359,980 or 63 percent.
With these savings, the city may allocate more funds for other priorities including health services, Sotto said.
“Hindi madali ang ginagawa nating paglilinis, pero sulit ang hirap. Dahil sa dulo, ang ordinaryong mamamayan ang makikinabang. Mas maraming pondo para sa iba’t ibang serbisyo, lalo na sa serbisyong pangkalusugan,” he said.
(It is not easy for us to clean our city, but hard work truly pays off. Because in the end, our ordinary citizens will benefit from it. Our funds will be allocated to other city’s services such as health services.)