Requesting Entity: Los Contratistas Dela Ciudad De Zamboanga

Issues Concern: Concerns on Post-Qualification Process

Details

(1) Period of post-qualification, (2) Issuance of Notice of Lowest Calculated Bid, and (3) Order of Post-qualification of Bidders.

(1) Period of post-qualification

As clearly provided in the Section 34.8 of the IRR of RA 9184, the post-qualification process shall be completed in not more than seven calendar days from the determination of the Lowest Calculated Bid (LCB)/Highest Rated Bid. Only in exceptional cases may such period be extended, but not to exceed thirty calendar days. xxx

In the event that the BAC fails to comply with said period, the BAC may be deemed to have failed in following the prescribed bidding procedures and the head of the procuring entity may declare failure of bidding as provided in Section 41 (b) of the IRR of RA 9184.

(2) Issuance of Notice of Lowest Calculated Bid

As provided in the IRR of RA 9184, procuring entities shall rank all received bids in the ascending order of their total calculated bid prices, as evaluated and corrected for computational errors, and other bid modifications. After which, the first ranked bidder will be considered the bidder with the LCB and will be notified of such fact for purposes of post-qualification. Hence, in such case, the procuring entity is to issue only one notice to the bidder with the LCB. A second notice of LCB may only be issued after the first ranked bidder is declared post-disqualified.

(3) Order of Post-qualification of Bidders

[C]onsidering the clear and categorical language of Sections 34.6 and 34.7 of the IRR on the order of post-qualification of bidders, it is our considered view that the BAC cannot dispense with the post-qualification of the 2nd and 3rd lowest bidders and proceed immediately to the 4th lowest bidder.