Bidding reforms proposed

The Senate committee on revision of codes and laws headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara has approved a consolidated bill that will reduce graft in infrastructure projects by banning simplified bidding, and calling for a shorter bidding period.

Angara said simplified bidding, the mode used to award the overpriced P1.1-billion President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) to a private contractor and other graft-ridden state contracts, will be history once the draft law is passed.

"Simplified bidding has been a major source of corruption in government contracts," he said.

Under the rules of simplified bidding, a government agency simply asks for tenders and bids from three or five pre-selected private contractors. In the case of the PDMB, the list of contractors was supplied by the Department of Public Works and Highways to the Public Estates Authority.

Angara said that simplified bidding sets aside public bidding to give the awarding agency full powers to name the private contractors that will bid for a specific project.

This practice is allowed under the present law, and Angara believes it is now high time to ban it. – Efren Danao