Requesting Entity: Quezon City Procurement Office

Issues Concern: Bidders Related by Consanguinity

Details

Whether the Quezon City – Bids and Awards Committee may prohibit bidders who are related by blood to submit bids over the same project.

[B]idders who may otherwise be eligible and qualified to participate in public bidding, cannot, and may not be disqualified, on the basis, per se, and solely on account of their relationship with one another either by consanguinity or affinity.

However, when such filial or blood relation is determined to present a conflict of interest, the provision under Clause 4 of the Instructions to Bidders (ITB) of the Philippine Bidding Documents (PBD) for the Procurement of Goods provides for their disqualification to participate in the procurement process, without prejudice to the imposition of appropriate administrative, civil and criminal sanctions. Under Clause 4(d), a Bidder may be considered to have a general conflict of interest when it has a relationship, directly or through third parties, that puts them in a position to have access to information about or influence on the bid of another Bidder or influence the decisions of the Procuring Entity regarding the bidding process.

Consequently, it is incumbent upon the BAC to make a definitive and concrete finding of conflict of interest between and among the bidders for them to be disqualified from the bidding process.