Requesting Entity: National Telecommunications Commission

Issues Concern: Eligibility Criteria for the Procurement of Goods-Single Largest Similar Contract

Details

Application of exemption to the requirement for a Single Largest Completed Contract and determination of a similar project.

It is clear that the procuring entity is given an option to require as a substitute to the fifty percent (50%) single largest similar contract, the bidder’s compliance to the three (3) eligibility criteria cited above, in the event of either a failure of bidding, or to prevent monopoly that would defeat public bidding, or when the item/good to be procured is novel or its procurement is otherwise unprecedented or is unusual, and compliance to the requirement on a largest similar contract is impracticable.

Furthermore, it may be noted that Section 23.6 of the same IRR-A requires from the prospective bidder a statement of all its ongoing, completed and awarded but not yet started contracts within the relevant period, if any, which shall include specific details to describe these contracts. Thus, the bidders may likewise specify whether said contracts are similar of not similar in nature and complexity to the contract to be bid.

However, it bears stressing that the procuring entity should be fully responsible in clarifying in their bidding documents what are the similar projects that can be considered in the bidding, and/or the parameters for determining the same. In the end it is entirely within the discretion of the procuring entity whether to consider a project as being similar or not similar in nature and complexity to the project being bid out.