Requesting Entity: Association of Local Budget Officers of Tarlac, Inc. (ALBO-Tarlac)

Issues Concern: Payment of Honoraria

Details

Whether the members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), BAC Secretariat and the Technical Working Group are entitled to honoraria pursuant to Section 15 of Republic Act No. 9184 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations even in the absence of a successful public bidding.

[S]ection 5.1 of DBM BC 2004-5A clearly provides that honoraria may be paid only for successfully completed procurement projects, such that a procurement project shall be considered completed once the contract has been awarded to the winning bidder.

x x x. Following the verba legis principle or the plain meaning rule, where a statute is clear, plain and free from ambiguity, it must be given its literal meaning and applied without attempt to interpret.