DND to spend P4.65B on gasoline next year

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of National Defense (DND) will spend P4.65 billion for its fuel requirements next year.

The agency has issued a bid bulletin for the fuel purchase, formally starting the procurement process for the project.

The project was divided into three lots, the bid bulletin signed by Defense Assistant Secretary Efren Fernandez showed.

The first lot has a budget of P3.28 billion and involves the procurement of the DND's petroleum requirements. The second lot refers to the agency's oil and lubricant requirements and has an outlay of P 367.24 million. The purchase of e-POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) card requirements constitutes the third lot, which has a budget of more than P1 billion.

The bidding for the project will be held next month.

The fuel requirements will be purchased through open competitive bidding procedures as required by the procurement law. The DND is now inviting oil firms to submit offers for the project.

The bidding is restricted to Filipinos and sole proprietorships and organizations with at least 60 percent interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to Philippine citizens.

Interested companies may buy a complete set of bidding documents from the Defense department Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat in Camp Aguinaldo for P75,000.

A pre-bid conference will be held on November 28 to allow prospective bidders to ask questions about the project. The deadline for the submission of bids will be on December 11 at 10 a.m.

Late bids and those that are higher than the approved budget for the project will not be accepted. Only the bids from eligible companies will be opened.

The company that submitted the lowest bid will advance to the post-qualification phase. This stage will allow defense officials to determine if the lowest bidder is capable of undertaking the project.

A bidder can only be a declared a winner if it hurdles the post-qualification phase.

Last year, oil firm Petron Corp. was declared the winner of the bidding for the supply of the military’s fuel requirements for this year.

The project, which has a total budget of more than P4-billion, was subdivided into six lots according to the locations of military and defense units.