A party-list lawmaker on Wednesday urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government to review thoroughly the public bidding process for the purchase of P1.6 billion worth of fire trucks due to alleged questionable specification requirements.
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe asked DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año that the conduct of the bidding process must be stopped.
“We learned that assemblers of fire trucks popular for providing the best firefighting options are barred from participating because the specification requirements imposed by the BFP appear to be tailor-made for certain brands,” Batocabe said in a letter to Año.
In his letter to the DILG Chief, Batocabe, vice chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said the public bidding will also preempt the ongoing congressional inquiry into the fire truck purchase program of the government.
The House good government committee, chaired by Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romuldo, earlier conducted a probe into audit findings which said public bidding controversies have slowed down the Bureau of Fire Protection’s fire truck procurement program.
The probe was in response to House Resolution 2225 filed by Batocabe which calls for a probe into the BFPs alleged continued failure to procure fire trucks in the past four years despite the availability of government funding for the procurement program.
Citing the 2017 Commission on Audit report on BFP, Batocabe said the country has around 2,350 serviceable fire trucks. Of this number, 1,094 were acquired between 1950 to 1999.
He said the Philippines should have at least 3,608 fire trucks based on the standard set by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
Given this, Batocabe said the qualification requisites imposed by the BFP on prospective suppliers have been “too restrictive and appeared to favor certain suppliers.”
Batocabe urged the BFP to present to Congress the bases for imposing additional documentary requirements in the bidding, such as certificates of exclusive distributorship and assembly and “additional documentary requirements submitted by previous supplier of existing fleet of firetrucks.”
The bidding requisites also compels supplier to submit a certification issued by the authorized local distributor and assembler that the cab and chassis manufacturer has been distributing spare parts in the last 15 years.
“If the additional documentary requirements ar enot considered, failure of bidding will most likely be the outcome in the conduct of public bidding for the procurement of firetrucks for the BFP,” said Batocabe.
The BFP was scheduled to rebid this week the procurement of 112 units of Firetrucks with a total estimated cost of P1.78 billion.
The Romualdo committee is expected to resume its probe on the matte when Congress resumes session next month.
“Given the firetrucks inadequacy and the observation of the COA that old fire trucks are costly to maintain and could be unreliable, not to mention the dangers it could possible cause to both residents and fire figthers, there is a need for the immediate procuremnt of firetrucks in accordance with the Governmetn Procurement Act,” Batocabe said.