Requesting Entity: Endure Medical, Inc.

Issues Concern: Forms of Bid Security; Protest Fee; Statement of All Completed Contract; and Special Conditions of Contract

Details

In submitting bid security, whether the bidder is given a choice to submit either a Bid Securing Declaration (BSD) or at least one other form prescribed by the Procuring Entity (PE), or the bidder should submit both.

Bidders cannot be required by the PE to submit both BSD and another form of bid security. As PE correctly pointed out, imposing this requirement is not only onerous but will also defeat the very essence and purpose for allowing the submission of BSD as an alternative form of bid security.

In a bidding where partial bids are allowed, whether the protest fee should be based on the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) of the item subject of the protest or the total ABC for the project.

If the bidder submits a bid for only 1 lot and intends to file a protest, the reference amount in determining the protest fee shall be the ABC of that particular item or lot only.

Whether the PE can still require the submission of statement of all completed contract.

It cannot be overemphasized that PEs are proscribed from requiring additional eligibility requirements because the list of minimum eligibility requirements under the revised IRR or RA 9184 have been streamlined such that only these eligibility requirements are necessary for the purpose of determining the bidders eligibility. Therefore, requiring a statement of all completed contracts, which is not one of the enumerated eligibility requirements under the IRR or RA 9184, constitutes an additional eligibility requirement proscribed by the rules.

Whether the BAC can impose a requirement in the Special Conditions of the Contract (SCC) that should be complied with during post qualification.

In general, only modifications for specific project or contract details as amendments to the General Conditions of Contract (GCC) should be provided in the SCC of the relevant Philippine Bidding Documents (PBDs). On the other hand, if modifications refer to the bidding procedures, they should be presented in the Bid Data Sheet (BDS) as amendments to the Instruction to Bidders (ITB). Inspection and testing among other requirements that shall be complied with during the post-qualification process shall be indicated in the ITB and BDS, and not in the GCC and SCC.