Requesting Entity: Butuan City Water District

Issues Concern: Single Calculated and Responsive Bid

Details

Whether the application of Section 36 on the Single Calculated/Rated and Responsive Bid (SCRB) under Republic Act (RA) 9184 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) is most advantageous to the government.

[S]ection 36 shows that it is not required to have three or more bidders competing for the same procurement activity. The more important consideration is to receive offers from the participating bidders that meets the eligibility, legal, technical and financial requirements. However, the responsibility of generating the best price does not lie on the participating bidders but, rather, would depend heavily on the procuring entity since it is the latter that determines the ABC for any government procurement.

On this note, it is the task of the procuring entity to ensure that in adopting an ABC, the contract cost or estimate must not be excessively high or unreasonably low to the detriment of government interest. The valuation of the procurement activity must be cost-efficient and, at the same time, realistic since the procuring entity dictates the range of the prices it would like to receive.

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Based on the foregoing, since the ABC represents the most practical costing determined by the procuring entity, it is not necessary to have at least three (3) or more bidders in order to receive the most advantageous bid considering that any bid that is equal or lower than the ABC, and is technically and legally compliant, is deemed most advantageous to the Government.