Group reviews docs of Pasajero Motors

A technical working group (TWG) is now reviewing the bidding documents of Pasajero Motors Corporation for hauling and rental contracts with the Cebu City government.

Pasajero Motors was the lowest bidder during Thursday's public bidding for the P150 million garbage hauling contract and P65 million rental contract for January to June 2018.

BAC head Ronaldo Malacora said Pamocor offered the lowest bidding price among the three participating bidders, which included Jomara Konstruckt Inc. and Quirante Construction.

As of this writing, though, he could not yet determine how much Pamocor is willing to offer to the city government as final price since the bidding's post-qualification phase is still ongoing.

Malacora said being the lowest bidder doesn't guarantee that Pamocor would be declared the winning bidder.

As per rule, the TWG will first study the bidding documents of the bidder that offered the lowest price.

The TWG will look into three types of documents to ensure that a service provider is completely qualified in all aspects – legal, technical, and financial documents.

Legal documents include business permits, tax clearance, Department of Trade Industry registration, Bureau of Internal Revenue registration, among others.

Technical documents should stipulate where the private hauler would dispose the city's garbage and must be accredited or secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as well as the number of hauling equipment it has.

As for the financial aspect, the documents should prove that the service provider is financially capable of such services.

When asked why only P150 million of the approved P300 million hauling budget for next year was bid out, Malacora said: “Amoa man na gituyo nga ingon ana para if naay sobra, maka-adjust pa ta for next bidding.”

Malacora further said the terms of reference from previous transactions would apply for the present contract. Under those terms, the city requires the service provider to provide a landfill which has an ECC from the DENR, and must have a transfer station facility which has a total land area of 2,000 square meters or more within the city.

This scheme – hiring a contract service provider that would haul the city's generated trash into a private landfill – has been adopted by the city government since the Inayawan landfill was shut down last December 15, 2016.

This year, the city government spent P312.5 million for the hauling operation. The amount is broken down as follows: P9.2 million for December 2016; P25.5 million for January 2017; P75 million for February to April 2017; P12 million for April to May 2017; P40 million for May to July 2017; P26.8 million for August and P124 million for September to December this year.

Meanwhile, under the conditions of the rental contract, every garbage truck should run 24 hours a day, collecting garbage from the barangays and taking them to the transfer station.

Malacora said the P650-million rental contract is for 11 dump trucks and 10 compactor trucks.

The city government started renting heavy equipment starting October this year to “improve” garbage collection.