Requesting Entity: City of Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat
Issues Concern: BAC Recommendation in the Procurement Process
Details
1. Whether or not the Bids and Awards Committee’s (BAC’s) action and/or recommendation is necessary in all procurement transactions of government agencies.
The recommendation of the BAC to the Head of the Procuring Entity is an indispensable requirement before a procurement contract may be perfected with any winning and/or eligible supplier, contractor or consultant. x x x
Corollary to the foregoing, the BAC’s involvement in all types of procurement, whether conducted through public bidding or through any of the alternative modes of procurement, is necessary. The law requires that preliminary to any award of contract by the Head of the Procuring Entity, the BAC should make a recommendation to this effect. And in the case of resort to any of the alternative modes of procurement, a prior recommendation of the BAC is similarly required.
2. Whether or not procurement activities undertaken without public bidding and/or prior recommendation of the BAC is considered an automatic violation of R.A. 9184 and its IRR-A.
[B]y the fact of immediate purchase, issue arises as to the need and/or practicability of a prior recommendation by the BAC and approval of the Head of the Procuring Entity. The authority to immediately purchase, it may seem, runs incongruent to the requirement for prior recommendation and approval as stated above because of the time involved in the latter.
On this note, this office opines that, in order to satisfy the requirement for prior recommendation and approval, the BAC and the Head of the Procuring Entity shall commit at the outset the recommendation and approval, respectively, of the resort to any of the alternative methods of procurement, by way of a general statement in the Annual Procurement Plan (APP) which shall be reinforced by a BAC Resolution. The general recommendation and approval shall contemplate the occurrence of an unforeseen contingency which will justify, in accordance with the intention of Sec. 52 (a) of the IRR-A of RA 9184, the immediate purchase of goods. The same shall also identify a pre-determined item or class of items which may be purchased by shopping under the said provision of the rules. The general recommendation and approval shall be without prejudice to the amount limits established by the rules.
Moreover, it is understood that resort to alternative method of procurement of Shopping under Sec. 52 (a) of the IRR-A is to be undertaken only in case where there is no material time to procure the needed items thru the usual public bidding and when the requisite prior recommendation and approval cannot be ordinarily obtained prior to actual purchase. It is for this reason that in this kind of Shopping, the prior recommendation and approval must have already been considered at the outset during the procurement planning period.
It may be well to mention that additional measures are in place to guard this procedure against abuse. An emergency purchase, in the context of this kind of Shopping, shall be supported by a certification by the agency head or his representative as to the necessity/justification for said purchase, and as to the reasonableness of the price paid or contracted for, it being the lowest obtainable at the time of the purchase or order. (COA Circular 78-84, 01 August 1978)