Furniture firms want changes in procurement law

CEBU, Philippines - Contractors of school furniture for the Department of Education want amendments to the Procurement Reform Act which they believe is being used by some school officials involved in graft and corruption.

Republic Act No. 9184, is also known as An Act providing for the Modernization Standardization and Regulation of the Procurement activities of the Government and from other purposes.

Allan Soco of Iligan Integrated Manufacturers Multi-Purpose Cooperative said that they signed a manifesto and sent it to Akbayan partylist Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel.

Others who signed the manifesto were representatives of JEC Lumber Corp. and Ramagal Door and Sash who filed complaints before the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman against top officials of the Department of Education-Cebu province and members of the Bids and Awards Committee and Technical Working Group.

Soco said they want the abolishment of the one-percent protest fee from the Procurement Law and a new provision introduced to protect the rights of bidders and contractors.

The fee is paid by a contractor when it decides to file a protest against the winning bid. It is equivalent to one percent of the proposed contract.

The manifesto further suggested an oversight committee from the Commission on Audit to investigate the BAC, its members, or the head of the procuring entity, or review any past or present bid proceeding based on acceptable complaints by bidders or just simply as a means to audit proceedings and post evaluation.

They also cited that different divisions have different practices of procedures despite one governing law.

They suspect that this may mean that each division might have different interpretations of the law or may use that flexibility to practice dishonest acts, covered with the protection of the BAC’s discretionary-powers.

They claimed some committees agree with the bidders on one thing in pre-bidding conferences but execute other procedures later and use their discretionary authority to justify their decisions.

The manifesto further claimed savings on approved budgets are lost to payoffs.

“What these officials forget is that it had severely affected our public school children and our teachers —the very same people that they were mandated to protect and progress,” the manifesto read.

Moreover, the contactors said their businesses, the livelihood of their workers and their ability to sustain operations are gravely affected as projects are unjustly lost.

They claimed that they are no longer able to compete on even ground, losing every opportunity to other contractors who play the game and should not even be accepted anymore in the bidding process.

The contractors also raised issues that BACs and TWGs of each school division, by virtue of an imperfect provision of law, are provided a “frightening level” of discretionary authority.

They claimed that the broad discretionary authority is the root of the evil and consequently provides the BAC a very wide spectrum for dishonest dealings.

The approving authority is still the head of the procuring agency where all BAC members, in the discharge of their regular functions and duties report to.

They suggested that the approving authority must be subjected to the same oversight and audit as the members of the BAC and TWG are. 

DepEd was brought into the limelight recently when the firms complained that the department chose a contractor to provide them furniture even though its bid was expensive. 

Rep. Baraquel has promised to have this looked into. — Jose P. Sollano/BRP (THE FREEMAN)