NEA has yet to award contract for woodpoles

At least $11.7 million will go down the drain if the National Electrification Administration continues to sit on the woodpoles and crossbars component of the Rural Electrification Project.

The amount of $11.7 million represents the lowest bid for the supply of woodpoles and crossbars submitted by Nerwin Industries, a local contractor backed by a Malaysian supplier.

The major components of the Rural Electrification Project are funded by a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JIBC) under the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF).

At this time, the unused portion of the loan package for rural electrification amounts to approximately $40 million. The loan was arranged by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), which also prepared the project study for rural electrification.

The JBIC set a deadline for the availment of the loan. If the concerned agencies do not utilize the fund by October this year, the loan will be forfeited.

The bulk of the transformers and other hardware needed for lighting up the countrysides have been delivered to the beneficiary barangays but these have not been installed because the woodpoles and crossbars contract has yet to be awarded.

The bid was held on Feb. 16 last year. It was won by Nerwin over three other pre-qualified bidders with the lowest tender at $11.7 million.

Between Nerwin and the second lowest bidder, the price difference amount to $1.47 million for the poles and close to half a million dollars for the cross bars. The difference is equivalent to an additional 7,948 posts and 20,967 pieces of crossbars.

The NEA prequalifications, bids and awards committee (PBAC) recommended to then NEA Administrator Conrad Estrella III that Nerwin be awarded the project. Estrella, who has since resigned to run for Congress in Pangasinan, endorsed the recommendation to the NEA board.

However, the board, has reportedly refused to award the project.

It is reported that a losing bidder, backed by an American consortium, has been pressuring the NEA board into changing the specifications for the projects.

According to reports, the NEA board is considering dividing the woodpoles/crossbars supply into subcontracts to accommodate losing bidders. This would be achieved by changing the specification from all wood to 70-percent concrete, entailing another bidding.