Requesting Entity: DOTC – Metrostar Express

Issues Concern: Single Largest Similar Contract for Procurement of Goods

Details

Whether or not the minimum requirement on the Single Larges Completed Contract for Goods may be increased.

It is clear from the foregoing [Sec. 23.11.1 (2)] that the procuring entity is given an option to require, as a substitute to the fifty percent (50%) single largest similar contract, the bidder’s compliance to the three (3) eligibility criteria cited above [i.e., (i) at least three similar contracts aggregate amount of which is at least fifty percent of ABC; (ii) largest of similar contract must be at least twenty five percent of ABC; (iii) existence for at least three consecutive years], in the event of either a failure of bidding or to prevent monopoly that would defeat public bidding.

It bears stressing that the aforesaid substitute eligibility criteria are intended to relax the strict requirement of fifty percent (50%) single largest similar contract, in order to open the bidding to the widest possible range of prospective and qualified bidders, thereby enhancing competition and transparency. Thus, to allow the procuring entity to make the requirement more severe/stringent by adjusting it upwards, would certainly run counter to the rationale behind the espoused principles of R.A. 9184 and its IRR-A.