The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office special bids and awards committee will resume the reopening and evaluation of the twice-disqualified bid documents of the consortium led by Shezhen-based Genlot Game Technology Co. Ltd. which seeks to bag the P6.15-billion Philippine Lottery System contract.
The PCSO board of directors chaired by retired police general Anselmo Simeon Pinili reportedly rejected the "irrevocable resignation" of the five SBAC members that rejected the bid of Genlot. The SBAC members were identified as Josefina Sarsonas-Aguas, lawyer Raymond Samarita, engineer Ariel de Ocampo, engineer Omar Bagui and lawyer Leah Christine Jimenez.
The five SBAC members opted to reconvene as the PCSO SBAC upon getting the PCSO board of directors' resolution rejecting their irrevocable resignation and order for them to resume the opening of the Genlot consortium bid documents. Other members of the Genlot consortium are local partners Digi-Specs I.T. Corp. and Philippine United Technic Corp.
Reports said, however, the PCSO SBAC declared that they were doing so "under protest" or against their professional judgement. The PCSO is now preparing for the resumption of the bid process for the P6.15-billion PLS contract.
The PCSO said in an advisory on its official social media pages the resumption would start on July 21.
"Please be informed that in compliance with the June 24, 2021 decision of the PCSO board of directors 'partially granting' the second verified protest of the joint venture of Genlot, the second re-opening of preliminary examination of their bid documents under SBAC Contract No. 2021-01 will be on Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 9 in the morning to be held at the 4th floor of the Sun Plaza Building, Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City, subject to Republic Act 9184 and its associated rules regulations," the advisory announced.
"The bid activity shall be livestreamed via the PCSO official Facebook Page and website," it said.
Mitzi Medrano, spokesperson of the PCSO, did not comment nor confirm the issue, saying she was not authorized to speak on the matter.
PCSO general manager and board of directors vice chairperson Royina Garma earlier said the PCSO board decided not to accept the irrevocable resignation of the SBAC.
The five SBAC members tendered their irrevocable resignation to the PCSO board on June 25.
"This irrevocable resignation is to ensure and maintain the continuity, transparency and integrity of the procurement activities for the 2021 PCSO Lottery Project [SBAC Contract No. 2021-01] and in addition, to uphold the cold neutrality of an impartial bids and awards committee by ensuring and preserving the appearance of fairness, objectivity and independence in the conduct of bid activities," the five SBAC members said in their resignation letter.
The irrevocable resignation came after the PCSO board of directors allegedly summoned the five SBAC members, ordering them to reverse their second disqualification of the bid submission of the consortium of Genlot, Digi-Specs and PUTC.
The Genlot consortium was disqualified for a second time after the SBAC found the mayor's permit of a member of the consortium, identified as PUTC, to be expired during the time of the opening of bids in April.
The Genlot consortium was disqualified for the first time during the opening of the bids submission on April 21 when their submissions were found to be lacking English translations certified by the Philippine embassy.
The SBAC subsequently reversed the first disqualification upon the instruction of the PCSO board of directors, but with a verbal declaration of resignation. The second resignation came after the SBAC members were summoned to a meeting by the PCSO board where the members reportedly felt "marginalized".
Two groups submitted tenders in the bidding conducted by the PCSO on April 20. One of the bidders is a combination of the two existing lotto equipment suppliers of the PCSO, Philippine Gaming Management Corp. of Filipino-Malaysian listed holding firm Berjaya Corp. and listed gaming technology operator Pacific Online Systems Corp. along with US gaming firm International Lottery & Totalizator Systems Inc. of San Diego, California.
The other group that submitted a bid was the joint venture of Genlot and local firms Digi-Specs and PUT which are being linked to Davao-based businessman and presidential economic adviser Michael Yang.
When the Genlot-Digi-specs-PUT bid was disqualified and the POSC-PGMC-ILTSI bid was declared as the lone qualifying bid, the Genlot-led group filed a protest over the disqualification, and paid a non refundable protest fee of P6.15 million, resulting in the PCSO board of directors acting as the head of procuring entity (HOPE), ruling in favor of the disqualified bidder.
Upon resumption of the SBAC evaluation, the committee again disqualified the bid of the Genlot group.
The matter was eventually elevated to the PCSO board, upon payment of another non-refundable protest fee of P6.5 million. The board of directors, voting 3 to 1, again ruled to overturn the SBAC decision. This reportedly prompted the resignation of the SBAC members.