Requesting Entity: Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) – Office of the Inspector General

Issues Concern: Award of Contract

Details

Whether the actions taken by the Head of the Procuring Entity (HOPE) of the AFP in cancelling the Notice of Award (NOA) is in accordance with Republic Act No. 9184

At the outset, we wish to note that this office has no jurisdiction to rule over actual controversies with regard to the conduct of bidding, since the office has neither quasi-judicial functions nor investigatory powers under the law. In this wise, we shall limit our clarification on the interpretation of relevant procurement laws, rules and regulations pertinent to the issues presented.

1. Lowest Calculated Bid (LCB) is identified during bid evaluation wherein submitted bids shall be ranked in the ascending order of their total calculated bid prices, as evaluated and corrected for computational errors, and other bid modifications;

2. Bidder with the LCB shall undergo post qualification process and only the bid declared as Lowest Calculated and Responsive Bid (LCRB) shall be recommended to the Head of the Procuring Entity (HOPE) for award of contract; and

3. The HOPE has the discretion to approve or disapprove the recommendation of the BAC, and in case the HOPE disapproved such recommendation, the disapproval shall be based only on valid, reasonable, and justifiable grounds to be expressed in writing.