Friday, February 11, 2011

Public Bidding Saved DPWH P577M

With the removal of negotiated contracts as procurement policy at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in July 2010, a month after the start of the Aquino administration, the government saved 577 million pesos, which could have been lost from the coffers. This came from 29 project contracts that the department brought into public bidding instead, and came out with much lower cost of works than the negotiated contracts entered into during the Arroyo administration.

In addition to that, 19 Japanese-funded flood control projects worth 934.1 million pesos were canceled. The previous DPWH leadership approved these projects without public bidding. In fact, the approval came even before the letter of authority from the Department of Budget Management was released.

Current secretary Rogelio Singson also ordered the rotation of the bids and awards committee among the third-ranking permanent officials in the central, regional and district engineering offices to keep the process in utmost integrity as it prevents these officials from getting too familiar with the contractors in their area. And only the secretary has the authority to approve any extension of contracts. No mention however if there will be random raffling of these committee among said officials.

Source
Joel Surbano: "Public Works saves P577m in new rules," Manila Standard Today 11 February 2011

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