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THE
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has “outrightly”
disqualified German firm Bundesdruckerei in the final
bidding for the P900-million electronic-passport project
after it submitted a bid amount far beyond the approved
budget cost, sources have said.
Only two
bidders had been left earlier for the project set to be
implemented jointly by the BSP and the Department of
Foreign Affairs (DFA): the French-Belgian firm FCO and
Bundesdruckerei.
FCO
submitted a bid worth $20.5 million (P859.5 million at
an exchange of P41.93 to $1); Bundesdruckerei submitted
a bid of $112 million (P4.69 billion at P41.93 to $1).
DFA
undersecretary for finance and administration Franklin
Ebdalin said the BSP disqualified the German firm during
the awards process held at the BSP on April 24, 2008. He
did not elaborate, saying he has yet to receive full
details of the procedures conducted by the BSP.
“There
is no awarding yet according to the BSP because one of
the bidders was disqualified,” said Ebdalin in a
telephone interview. “But we expect the awarding to be
finished in two weeks.”
But a
source privy to the procedures revealed that the German
firm Bundesdruckerei was “outrightly disqualified”
during the bidding process after it submitted a price
bid of P4.69 billion, which is “way beyond the approved
budget cost [ABC] worth P900 million.”
“With
only one bidder [referring to the French-Belgian FCO
company] left, the BSP will conduct a post-qualification
bid by middle of this month,” said the official, who
requested anonymity.
“After
that, the Monetary Board of the BSP will officially
choose the winning bidder for the E-passport project,”
he said.
A source
said Bundesdruckerei’s move to submit an inordinately
high bid rate had given rise to suspicion that it had
entered into a “strategic alliance” with a local company
set up by the Philippine-Thai firm BCA International,
whose award for the P2-billion machine-readable passport
and visa project (MPRV) was terminated by the DFA in
December 2005.
BCA
International has sued DFA officials before the
Sandiganbayan as it questioned the termination of the
P2-billion contract. DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo
terminated the contract in December 2005 after the BCA
International failed to implement the passport project
in the last five years after winning the bid.
There
were originally four European companies for the bidding
of the P900-million E-passport project early this year:
the FCO firm; Alma Viva, supplier of Italian passports;
GND company and Bundesdruckerei, which supplies
Germany’s passports since 1987.
But
based on the BSP standards, Alma Viva and GND companies
failed to satisfy the technical and financial
requirements set for the government. Last January, the
BSP announced that only two companies will participate
in the final bidding— FCO and Bundesdruckerei. |
