Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Relevant changes in the IRR of GPRA

For the benefit of government procurement practitioners who have not yet downloaded a copy of the draft Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the GPRA (RA 9184), and for those who did not have a chance to get invited to the GPPB-sponsored series of consultation workshops, here are some of the relevant changes to the IRR:

Coverage. The revised IRR now covers both domestically-funded and foreign-funded procurement activities whether wholly or partly. The previous rules (IRR-A) cover only domestically-funded projects. This means there will only be one IRR to cover all types of government procurement regardless of fund sources.

Scope and Application. A statement is included that “the loan negotiating panel of the government of the Philippines shall ensure that all foreign-funded procurement activities shall be through competitive bidding”.

Bid Envelopes. The two (2) envelope system will be implemented. From the previously required three (3) envelopes (Eligibility, Technical and Financial), prospective bidders will now have to submit the Technical and Financial envelopes, but that the eligibility requirements will now form part of the Technical envelope.

Eligibility Documents. The documents are still classified as Class "A" and Class "B". The Class "A" documents will still consist of Legal, Technical and Financial except that the number of documents to be submitted have been reduced from 11 to six (6). These are:

Legal - (a) DTI or SEC or CDA registration certificates whichever is appropriate under existing Philippine laws; (b) valid an current Mayor's permit issued by the city/municipality where the principal place of business of the bidder is located. The other documents required in the previous IRR-A like the TIN, Statement that the bidder is not blacklisted or barred from government bidding, GEPS certificate of registration, BIR Tax clearance, and other appropriate licenses will be submitted by the bidder within 30 calendar days from receipt of the BAC notice that it the lowest calculated responsive bidder. This is required prior to issuance of the Notice of Award.

Technical - Statement of the prospective bidder of all its ongoing and completed government and private contracts within the relevant period as provided in the Instructions to Bidders, including contracts awarded but not yet started, if any; and for Infra projects, a valid Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) license and registration for the type and cost of the contract to be bid.

Financial - (a) The prospective bidder’s audited financial statements, stamped “received” by the BIR; (b) the prospective bidder’s computation for its Net Financial Contracting Capacity (NFCC); and/or a credit line commitment (CLC) from a universal or commercial bank to be extended if awarded the contract to be bid in an amount not lower than that set by the procuring entity in the Bidding Documents, which shall be at least equal to ten percent (10%) of the Approved Budget for the Contract/Estimated Contract Cost to be bid. Please note that the cash deposit certificate which used to be among the financial documents that a bidder can offer is done away with.

Class "B" Documents - There used to be two (2) required documents, namely: Valid Joint Agreement (JVA), and letter authorizing the BAC or authorized representives to verify all documents submitted. The latter is now part of the Technical envelope. If the bidder is a joint venture, it is required to submit a valid Joint Venture Agreement (JVA), or in the absence of a JVA, written statements from all the potential joint venture partners stating that they will enter into and abide by the provisions of the JVA in the instance that the Bid is successful shall be included in the Bid. Failure to enter into a joint venture in the event of a contract award shall be ground for the forfeiture of the bid security. Each member of the joint venture shall submit the legal eligibility documents. Following the principle of collective compliance, the submission of technical and financial eligibility documents by any of the joint venture partners is allowed.

More of these changes on my next post.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

IRR-A of GPRA up for revision

The GPPB has scheduled a series of consultation workshops on the proposed amendments to the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 9184. Twelve LGUs per region (3 provinces, 4 cities and 4 municipalities) have been invited. Schedule of the consultation is as follows:

February 3-4 in Manila for Regions IV-A, IV-B and NCR
February 5-7 in Baguio City for Regions I, II, III and CAR
February 17-19 in Cebu City for Regions VI, VII, VIII and IX
February 19-21 in Davao City for Regions X, XI, XII and XIII

For Region VI, the LGUs invited to the consultation are: provinces of Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental, cities of Bacolod, Ilolo, Passi and San Carlos; and municipalities of Anilao, and Duenas in Iloilo, Kalibo, Aklan and Tobias Fornier, Antique.

The proposed amendment to the IRR can be downloaded from the GPPB web site.