By DUCKY PAREDES
MALAYA
MALAYA
‘For this concerned citizen, if we can save half of the money we will be paying for imported license plates by buying quality plates made locally, why not? That seems the smarter thing to do, doesn’t it?’
IN theory, whenever government does anything, it does what is best for everyone. Thus, when it wants anything, government buys at the lowest price the best quality available. Who can argue with that?
Yet, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and its agency, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) are now at the center of controversy over what could turn out to be an error-filled bidding for the manufacture and supply of vehicle license plates for five years until 2018.
This is not the first time that the bidding for the supply of license plates for cars and motorcycles has been marred by irregularity but the sheer number of complainants makes a lie of the supposed righteous (Daang Matuwid) path that the present government supposedly treads.
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The DOTC-LTO Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) held a marathon session May 6 to 7 to open the sealed bids for the Motor Vehicle License Plates Supply Project. After looking over the bids, the BAC eventually decided that only two of the eight bidders, most of them joint ventures with foreign partners, were eligible.
The two bidders that the passed muster based on the examination of eligibility documents and technical proposals were the joint venture (JV) of the Netherlands’ J. Knieriem B.V. Goes or “JKG,”’ and local company Power Plates Development Concepts, Inc. and the JV of Spain’s Industrias Samart and local company Datatrail Corp.
Since they were the only ones eligible, their financial proposals were then opened, with the JKG-Power Plates group offering the lowest offers for both Lots 1, for motor vehicle or “MV” license plates, and 2 for motorcycle or “MC” license plates.
For Lot 1, JKG-Power Plates proposed to supply the motor vehicle (MV) plates at a total cost of P1.98-billion while Industrias Samart-Datatrail offered the same at P2.03 billion.
The ceiling price was P2.356-billion for Lot 1.
For Lot 2, JKG-Power Plates offered to supply motorcycle (MC) plates at a cost of P 1.196-billion, while Industrias Samart-Datatrail tendered a bid of P1.275-billion.
The maximum bid price for Lot 2 was P1.495-billion.
Since the RA 9184 or the Procurement Law mandates a thorough study of financial proposals, the DOTC-LTO BAC said it will evaluate the proposals and check whether the calculations were correct and eventually declare the winning joint venture with the lowest calculated bid, to be followed by the post-qualification process.
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The six ousted bidders failed to provide all the required documents. This left the BAC no choice but to declare their ineligibility.
RNA Holdings, Inc. (Philippines) and Utal Sp. Z o.o (Poland), submitted no financial statements and had no credit line certificate and neither did they conform to the delivery schedule and the technical specifications. Kolonwel Trading (Philippines) and Shanghai Fa Yu Industrial Co., Ltd. (China), had no valid mayor’s permit and was non-compliant with the required technical specifications.
Utsch-Fereira (Phils.) Corp. (Philippines) and Utsch A.G. (Germany) did not meet the delivery schedule and submitted a non-compliant lock washer.
Uniforbes, Inc. (Philippines) and EHA Hoffman International GmbH (Germany) also had no valid mayor’s permit, was not in conformity with the delivery schedule, and failed to submit all the required documents.
DVK Philippines Enterprises (Philippines) and Jinjiang Hesheng Light (China) had no valid certificate of reciprocity and failed to submit a sample.
Proact Philippines, Inc. (Philippines) also lost out since it did not submit a certificate of reciprocity.
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Of the failed bidders, only the JV of RNA Holdings and Utal protested against the adverse decision of the DOTC-LTO BAC. The JV filed a motion for reconsideration, insisting that its Polish had submitted its “financial statements,” as practiced in Poland.
The norm in Poland is the submission of audit papers and not the financial statements demanded by the bidding committee. The issue seems only about format and not substance.
A bank has also given the joint venture a P390-million credit backing, which will be committed to the RNA-Utal project for license plates.
In regard to the delivery schedules, RNA said it gave a separate page as required by the bidding rules, instead of merely signing on one of the checklists.
RNA seems the most committed to the Philippines since it has established a local manufacturing facility.
This is the also the reason the joint venture was able to cut down on costs and reduce its bid to a point that it could beat all competitors, which source their license plates from Europe.
The joint venture’s facilities are also expected to supply the needs of local government units (LGUs) and private entities.
RNA also bragged that in the product-quality compliance testing, it was probably the only bidder that met the latest US standards, claiming that the DOTC’s required specifications had been phased out six years ago.
RNA said it had offered to provide the LTO 5.2 million two-piece license plate sets for cars, trucks, taxis, buses and other four-wheeled vehicles at P163.85 each.
In contrast, the qualified bidder from the Netherlands offered MV license plates at P380 per set while the Spanish joint venture partner offered P388.05 per set, respectively.
For motorcycles, RNA offered to supply 10 million license plates at P46.16 each against the Dutch and Spanish suppliers’ offers of P120 and P128 each, respectively.
RNA’s bid was would have cost government only P1.32 billion compared to the JKG’s P3.18 billion and Samart’s P3.31 billion.
One of the three China-backed joint ventures had a bid lower than JKG’s and Samart’s but still higher than RNA’s.
The four other joint ventures had bids even higher than those of JKG and Samart.
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One last bit: RNA Holdings has also pointed out that the DOTC-LTO BAC allowed a monumental anomaly to mar the bid process. The bidders were made to swear that their bids complied with the standard “ASTM D 4956 8.5” for reflective surfaces on the license plates, when no such standard existed.
Thus, they all made false statements by swearing to have complied with a non-existent technical requirement!
In a letter to Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, who also heads the DOTC-LTO BAC, RNA Holdings Inc. challenged the technical working group about the existence of an “ASTM D 4956 8.5” standard. Robert Aventajado, representative of RNA Holdings, Inc. suggested that there might have been a typo because there was another standard for reflective surfaces which was “ASTM D 4956 7.5.” Lotilla insisted that there was no typo and ordered every bidder to comply with the bidding rules, among which was that the bidders must swear to having tested their license plates against the standard “ASTM D 4956 8.5.”
They all did.
Doesn’t that now make all those sworn statements “false and perjurious,” since there is no such standard, even as the BAC insists that there is!
Says Aventajado: “There is no such standard and no test can prove conformity to a non-existing standard. Yet, as the rules require, all bidders swore under oath that they did the test for the plates’ reflective surfaces.”
Bidders’ claims not supported by evidence should be rejected.
“We thus implore the committee to render all submitted bids rejected and therefore declare these proceedings a failed bid,” Aventajado asks in his May 7, 2013 letter.
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For this concerned citizen, if we can save half of the money we will be paying for imported license plates by buying quality plates made locally, why not? That seems the smarter thing to do, doesn’t it? After all, if we follow all of the bidding rules, there has actually been a failed bid when the higher bid wins the contract!
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Readers who missed a column can access www.duckyparedes.com/blogs. This is updated daily. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@gmail.com or you can send me a message through Twitter @diretsahan.
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