Gov’t to rebid P243-M firefighting deal

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The government will rebid a multimillion-peso contract for firefighting equipment for the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) after the winner of the P243-million deal in 2010 was disqualified, Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said Wednesday.

The BFP acting director Samuel Perez had disqualified Kolonwel Trading Co., which bested several other BFP suppliers with a lowest calculated

bid of P242,806,753 in October 2010, for reportedly not having complied with documentary requirements.

Party-list member Teodoro Casiño (Bayan Muna) has questioned Perez’s decision declaring the bidding a failure but Robredo said Perez had sufficiently explained his decision and the contract would be rebid.

Winner’s complaint

The bidding will be held as soon as possible by the Department of Budget and Management’s procurement services unit, Robredo said.

According to a staff member in Casiño’s office, the party-list representative last year called for an investigation into what he deemed was an irregularity after the winning bidder, Kolonwel, approached him to complain.

In a statement on Wednesday, Casiño assailed Perez’s declaring a bidding failure when the bidding had already passed three bids and awards committees (BAC).

He accused Perez of trying to give the agency’s regular suppliers another crack at the multimillion-peso contract which involves the purchase of 4,197 sets of fire fighting boots, helmets, gloves, coats and trousers.

In a quandary

Casiño said the losing bidders, Panpisco Technologies and 911 Alarm, never went through the prescribed protest mechanism but simply wrote about their complaints to Perez after the BAC had already declared the winning bidder. Both firms are longtime suppliers of the BFP.

In his statement, Casiño cited a Dec. 6, 2011, memorandum to Robredo by the BAC chairman Ruben Bearis who said the agency has found itself in a quandary because of Perez’s actions.

“We are afraid that if we will now allow this deadlock to persist, then we will be unduly setting a precedent whereby a losing bidder can just simply and conveniently circumvent the law by purposely evading to file a motion for reconsideration and thereafter a protest, but later on set up such adversarial moves to question the actions of the BAC which they should have seasonably questioned in the first place pursuant to the pertinent provisions of the procurement law,” Bearis was quoted as saying.

Casiño appealed to Robredo to look into the Perez’s supposed interests and that others who were allegedly “working to prevent the acquisition.”

“Secretary Robredo should not tolerate such shenanigans in his department. The needs of our firefighters and the public should not be held hostage by the infighting and jostling for juicy contracts of the generals in the BFP,” he said.