Palace probes COA claim vs. Kaliwa bidding

Malacañang on Monday said it would look into the report of the Commission on Audit questioning the legitimacy of the Kaliwa Dam contract awarded to Chinese firm China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited.

According to COA, the bidding for the Kaliwa Dam was done “in the guise of being a competitive procurement process” with the two losing bidders merely included to comply with the Procurement Law requiring three bidders.

The government auditing body said the Consortium of Guangdong Foreign Construction was non-compliant with the eligibility requirements while the financial bid of Power Construction Corporation of China Limited was “surprisingly higher” than the approved budget for the contract.

“Only the China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited qualified which is questionable considering that the two bidders were disqualified in the first and second stages of the procurement process due to the seemingly intentional purpose of the bidders not to comply with the TWG [technical working group] requirements,” COA said.

“Of course, we will have to look at the report of COA, then look at the contract,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

President Rodrigo Duterte, Panelo added, has the power to suspend the contract if the alleged irregularities were proven.