Requesting Entity: Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Field Unit III (RFU3)

Issues Concern: Modifying or Adding to the Statements in the Invitation to Bid; Exercising the Reservation Clause

Details

1.Whether procuring entities are allowed to modify or add to the conditions stated in the Philippine Bidding Documents (PBDs), particularly the Invitation to Bid.

The Invitation to Bid contains notes in italics allowing procuring entities to insert any necessary information it deems relevant to the procurement project, conforming to the Instructions to Bidders and, in particular, to the relevant information in the Bid Data Sheet of the Bidding Documents.

Clause 20.3 of the PBDs for the Procurement of Goods provides that the original and copies of the envelopes containing the technical and financial components of the bid shall be signed by the bidder, but is silent whether the same should be done with the single envelope where all the envelopes containing the original and copies of the technical and financial components of the bid are enclosed. As such, the instruction that “all envelopes shall be duly signed in the sealed overlaps or flaps by the bidder or duly authorized representative in order to maintain the integrity of the documents” may be considered an additional information that procuring entities may validly include in the Invitation to Bid inasmuch as it is not contrary to the provisions of the PBDs.