CH supplier given ultimatum to complete armchairs delivery

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young has given the supplier until the end of the month to deliver the rest of the armchairs that the city government has ordered for the different public schools.

Young said the city government will cancel the order if the 3,770 armchairs remained undelivered until the end of the month.

The Vice Mayor said he wrote City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete, chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee, for the latter to require Gala Industries Corp. to submit a written statement on when will they be able to complete the delivery.

The city government has ordered a total of 7,550 armchairs from Gala Industries but 3,770 remain undelivered.

Young said that the city could not wait any longer because the schools direly need chairs for the new school buildings that the city has built.

The delivery of the armchairs is apparently over one year overdue already since the city gave the Purchase Order and issued the Notice of Award to the company in March 11, 2010.

Young would not allow the supplier to just pay the penalty for late delivery but he wants the contract to be cancelled and bid the supplies again.

He said that the reasonable time for them in which the supplier must deliver is at most one month.

“Since we have paid them for the first batch of chairs delivered, they must deliver the rest of the chairs immediately,” he said.

Young said he found out that the contractor is undergoing some economic challenges because it has also failed to deliver to the provinces of Bohol and Cebu.

“The DepEd Bohol called me and asked if Gala has not delivered the armchairs to us also. Gala apparently has also a problem in delivering to Bohol and Cebu Province,” Young said.

When the supply was bid out in 2009, Young said that Gala was not even the lowest bidder but the contract was awarded to them because they were the only contractor that presented a qualified quality of armchairs they were looking for.

Each chair costs P1,154 for the elementary school and P1,358 for the high school.

The city ordered 2,800 armchairs for elementary schools and 4,750 armchairs for high schools for a total contract cost of P9.6 million. To date, Gala has delivered only 3,780 armchairs.

In early reports, the BAC said that Gala refused to deliver because the city has failed to pay them for the first batch of chairs delivered.

Young said that the city paid for the first batch last week. He even would have wanted to pay only half of the price of the first batch of chairs and pay the rest when Gala finally delivers everything.

Young said that the payment for the first batch was delayed due to suspensions of the Commission on Audit.   - (THE FREEMAN)