Requesting Entity: Road Board (RB)
Issues Concern: Composition of the Road Board Secretariat Special Bids and Awards Committee (RBS-SBAC)
Details
Whether the RBS can appoint its Chief Accountant as SBAC member.
COA Circular 2003-004 states in clear and unequivocal terms that the Chief Accountant and the personnel of the Accounting Unit of any agency of government are prohibited from being regular members of the agency’s BAC to ensure that the procurement and payment functions are segregated.
[T]he sole exception to the prohibition is when accounting personnel would be provisional members, in case the Accounting Unit is the end-user.
Whether the Department of Public Works and Highways National Capital Region (DPWH-NCR) Regional Director who does not occupy a plantilla position in RBS can be validly designated as SBAC member.
A closer examination of Sec. 11.2.2 would clearly show that a regular BAC member should be an “officer” while a provisional member is a “representative of the end user unit”. In this case, the DPWH-NCR Regional Director cannot be appointed as regular member since he is not an official of RBS.
Whether it is permissible to appoint a substitute member of the SBAC outside of the RB or the RBS in case of absence or incapacity of the regular member, and there are no other qualified officials within the RB or RBS who can act as substitute member.
All members of the BAC, whether regular or provisional, must occupy a plantilla position in the procuring entity. Consequently, all RBS-SBAC members should be selected from within the RBS, being the procuring entity concerned. In addition, those designated as alternate members or substitutes should possess the same qualifications as the regular members themselves.
Whether contractual-plantilla personnel of the RBS can form part of the SBAC in lieu of the RBS Chief Accountant or DPWH official.
[T]he plantilla position contemplated by the rules may be occupied by a contractual, regular, designated or appointed official or personnel. The nature and tenure of employment is inconsequential.
Accordingly, a contractual personnel of the RBS occupying a permanent position, that is, a plantilla position, can be a member of the SBAC in lieu of the RBS Chief Accountant or DPWH official.
Whether the RB, through the RBS, can cause the implementation of the National Road Lighting Program (project).
[I]f what was referred to as “implementation” meant the conduct of the procurement activities by the RBS-SBAC. x x x the RBS-SBAC being the procurement arm of RB may validly commence and conduct the relevant procurement activities and recommend award of contract to the RB; in this situation, actual project implementation is to be performed by the winning contractor or the bidder with the Lowest Calculated and Responsive Bid, and not by the RB or the RBS.