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.