Requesting Entity: Commission on Audit (COA) Region VI

Issues Concern: Requiring Eligibility Documents when Resorting to Alternative Methods of Procurement

Details

Whether it is necessary to require losing suppliers in any of the alternative methods of procurement to submit eligibility documents.

[T]he revised IRR of RA 9184 is silent whether or not eligibility documents mentioned under Section 23.1 must be submitted when resorting to any of the Alternative Methods of procurement, except those where competitive bidding or a semblance thereof is still present, such as in Limited Source Bidding and Negotiated Procurement under Two Failed Biddings . This being the case, the Procuring Entity (PE) has the discretion to require the submission of the legal, technical and financial eligibility documents or not.

[I]f the eligibility documents were required to be submitted at the outset, suppliers must provide these documents upon submission of their proposals or quotations; otherwise disqualification is in order. If no eligibility documents were required upon submission of the proposals, the PE bears the consequential risk, but should nonetheless validate the capability of the supplier through other means. In the case of losing suppliers, there is neither rhyme nor reason, specifically if the PE did not require the submission of eligibility documents from the very start, to compel them to further submit their eligibility documents when these will be of no relevance to the PE.