Delay seen in bidding for Napocor insurance policy

The bidding for the $10-billion insurance policy of the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) assets is likely to be delayed by one to two months, Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez said.

Perez said the joint bidding committee had its first meeting last Wednesday where they explored the possibility of asking for a 30 to 60-day extension of the prescribed deadline under Memorandum Order 30 issued by President Arroyo.

"There are at least two options that have been raised, one of which is extending the current deadline of Sept. 30, by about 30 to 60 days," Perez said.

But the energy secretary said they would still have to study this proposal. "We are studying options including the extension. But we may or may not extend. We also do not want to rush the bidding," he said.

If possible, he said they could seek a so-called automatic extension of the deadline set under the Malacañang order. "We could ask for an automatic extension so we can have more time to study the process," he said.

It will be recalled that Malacañang decided to step into the Napocor-GSIS dispute to end, once and for all, the feud between the two government-controlled firms.

Malacañang ordered the formation of a joint bidding committee composed of two representatives each from Napocor, (DOE secretary and Napocor president) and Government Service Insurance system (GSIS) (general manager and senior vice president) with the Department of Finance as chairman.

In that order, President Arroyo instructed the joint committee to award the winning bid at least 15 days before the renewal date of the Napocor insurance coverage. The insurance policy of Napocor will expire end of this month.

Aside from deferment of the bidding date, there were several suggestions that cropped up during the first committee meeting, according to Perez.

But he assured that they would definitely push through with the electronic bidding as instructed by President Arroyo.

At the moment, he said they are in the process of drafting the rules. "We can’t say the exact bidding date yet because we are looking at two options. We are trying to buy more time to allow reinsuring brokers adequate time to bid properly," he said.

He said they have not firmed up any list of possible bidders. "The list of interested bidders are not finalized," he added.