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Month: January 2017

ASEAN 2017 bid rules skewed to favor one company?

Published by Ellen on January 2, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN 2017 meetings from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo
President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN 2017 meetings from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo


By CHARMAINE C. DEOGRACIAS and ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
VERA Files

Conclusion
WHEN the government bidded out the P2.8 billion events management contract for the 50th anniversary of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations to be held in the Philippines this year, it tailor-made the criteria so that a favored company would bag the deal, a company excluded from the bidding said.
In fact, sources say, when the bidding was held Dec. 1 at the DBM-PS office on Cristobal Street in Paco, Manila, only one company showed up: StageCraft International.

With a bid of P1 billion, StageCraft, headed by Francisco Zabala, logically got the gargantuan contract, the biggest in Philippine history of events management.

But Events Organizer Network Inc (EON), a company which took part in the initial process, wrote the executive director of the DBM-PS and asked her “to reject the sole bid of submitted, declare a failure of bidding, or not to award the contract to the sole bidder.”

Continue readingASEAN 2017 bid rules skewed to favor one company?

DBM shortcuts bid process for P2.8 billion ASEAN hosting deal

Published by Ellen on January 2, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize the handing over of the ASEAN Chairmanship to the Philippines from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo.
President Rodrigo Duterte accepts the gavel to symbolize the handing over of the ASEAN Chairmanship to the Philippines from Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos on September 8. Malacanang photo.

By CHARMAINE C. DEOGRACIAS and ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
VERA Files
First of two parts

THE Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) has allegedly violated the government procurement law when it bidded out the gargantuan P2.8 billion events management contract for the hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conferences this year, a company excluded from the bidding said.

The contract is supposedly the biggest of its kind and involves the management of 48 international conferences from January to December 2017, the 50th anniversary of the ASEAN’s founding and the year the Philippines is ASEAN chair.

The sole bidder and apparent winner is Stagecraft International which offered P1 billion at the bidding held Dec. 1, 45 days before the commemorative launching of the Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN on Jan. 15, 2017 in Davao city.

But Events Organizer Network Inc. (EON), a company that participated in the initial procurement process, alleges that the DBM-PS bidded out the contract as “goods” instead of “services,” in violation of the government procurement law Republic Act 9184.

Continue readingDBM shortcuts bid process for P2.8 billion ASEAN hosting deal