Requesting Entity: Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat-House of Representatives

Issues Concern: Misrepresentations in and Insufficiency of Required Information in Documentary Submissions

Details

Whether or not a bidder’s apparent failure to disclose all relevant information required by the procuring entity constitutes sufficient ground for disqualification

[S]hould [post-qualification] uncover any misrepresentations or insufficiency made in the submitted requirements, statements or documents, the procuring entity shall consider the said bidder as disqualified. The documents or requirements in which any misrepresentation is made or where there is insufficiency of required information is non-compliant. As a logical consequence, any document, although submitted, not being responsive to the requirement set by the procuring entity, does not sufficiently serve its cause and is therefore reduced to a mere scrap of paper that could not give any more value for purposes of the bidding procedure. Thus, by legal fiction, the non-complying document is deemed as not submitted – a situation that implies the necessary disqualification of the concerned bidder.

This view proves consistent with prevalent procurement policies as it tends to sustain the fairness of the bidding procedures and ensure that bidders do not trifle, at will or otherwise, with procurement rules by resorting to any untruthful or insufficient and non-responsive representations. This also provides more objectivity in the determination of awardees of government procurement contracts as it deals only with bidders who comply with the requirements of law and of the procuring entity.