Requesting Entity: Office of the Municipal Budget Officer of Tubao, La Union

Issues Concern: Composition of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) in Local Government Units (LGUs)

Details

Whether or not the members of the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) such as the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator (MPDC) and the Municipal Engineer, may be appointed as members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), at the same time, of the procuring entity concerned.

Although it can be observed from the aforesaid provisions (Sections 11.2.2 and 11.2.5, IRR-A, R.A. 9184) that neither the MPDC nor the Municipal Engineer is prohibited to be members of the BAC, assuming that the offices they represent are considered as regular offices under the Office of the Local Chief Executive, it is a primordial task for the BAC to ensure that the procuring entity has complied with the rules set forth by R.A. 9184 and the IRR-A.

As such, it becomes necessary to ensure that the functions of the BAC should be segregated from the functions of a monitoring committee that is tasked to check and/or guarantee that the BAC has complied with the provisions of R.A. 9184 and its IRR-A and that the contract has been performed in accordance with the specifications and standards of the law, in keeping with the rules and principles of efficient monitoring of government procurement.

In fine, if the PMC is a monitoring committee which is tasked to check or monitor on the BAC’s activities, we believe that they cannot be members of the BAC, at the same time, to avoid the possibility of conflict of interest that may arise under the given functions. It must be considered that, appointing the members of the PMC in the BAC, may weaken the spirit and intention of the law in upholding the principles of transparency, system of accountability of public officials and public monitoring of the procurement process.