Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said they will recall the award given to the Manila based supplier for the procurement of 10 brand new dump trucks pending an investigation he has requested the City Legal Office to conduct.

Effectively, the award will be suspended until the investigation is made in order to satisfy transparency, Leonardia said. He was told that there was a footage taken from Manila that could cast some doubts on the regularity of the transaction, he said.

City Legal Officer Allan Zamora said there is an allegation made that the transaction involved a “standard operating procedure,” which other people may interpret as an irregularity. He said the investigation will focus on who is responsible if ever there is such an SOP because he believes the bidding process was above board. The Procurement Act requires transparency, he added.

Leonardia said the Bids and Awards Committee has complied with all the procedural requirements. In the alleged footage reported to him, he said, it was very clear that they learned about the bidding through the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System.

The winning bidder, Commercial Motors Corp., is offering the city 10 brand new Yuejin mini dump trucks at P895,000 per unit.

Secretary to the Mayor Goldwyn Nifras said the BAC has followed regularly all the procedures. How the supplier conducts its business is something that should be investigated. He said the footage showed that the supplier learned about the bidding from the PhilGEPS and tendered their bid.

He said the supplier offered a truck that suited their specification meaning that the trucks were modified before these were offered to the city.

Leonardia said they will write the supplier informing them that the city will recall the award. If in the course of the investigation there is nothing irregular, they can continue the transaction, he said.

He said if the city decides to reject the bidding, they will have to start from the beginning.

“This is not an admission. We just want to satisfy transparency because there is an allegation that there are irregularities because, as far as we are concerned, all the procedures were followed,” Leonardia said.

Nifras said that as far as BAC is concerned, suppliers discovered to be doing business in an unethical manner can be suspended and the city will be forewarned not to deal with them.

He said the supplier got into the bidding because they learned it through the PGEPS and nobody went to Manila to transact with them as implied by some people. They are a walk-in supplier, he said, and the reason they won is because they have complied with the specifications required by the city.*CGS

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