Requesting Entity: Bulacan State University (BSU)

Issues Concern: Bid Evaluation for the Procurement of Services

Details

Whether a bid containing dashes and spaces in the price schedule is considered complete and responsive.

Section 32.2.1 of the IRR of RA 9184 provides that unless the Instructions to Bidders allow partial bids, bids that do not address or provide all the required items or where no price was indicated in the Bidding Documents, including bill of quantities, shall be considered non-responsive, and thus, automatically disqualified. However, specifying a “0” (zero) for an item would mean that it is being offered for free to the Government.

[T]he Generic Procurement Manual (GPM) for Consulting Services expressly provides that specifying a “0” (zero) or a “-” (dash) for the required item means that the same is being offered free to the government. While the GPM for both Goods and Infrastructure Projects only indicates “0” (zero) in the evaluation of bids, it can be gleaned that the intention of the rules is to provide a standard procedure for the procurement of government projects. Such interpretation is consistent with the rationale behind the rule on ensuring the integrity of the bids. This is because leaving blank spaces in the bidding documents would open the door for possible unauthorized insertions and entries, thereby rendering inutile the principles of transparency and competition governing government procurement.

[I]n order for the procuring entity to consider a bid as complete and responsive, the bidder should supply all pertinent information, in the form of an actual amount, zero, or dash, for each of the required items in the bidding documents.