HIDDEN AGENDA…
From B4 If the two officials are looking for a legal basis to cancel the contract, RA 9184 itself provides that when the delay in deliveries already reaches more than 10 percent of total contract quantity, this is a ground for the automatic termination of the contract.
The bid data sheet also says that subcontracting is now allowed. But no less than the LTO has admitted that the work was subcontracted to India and China makers.
The late senator Miriam Defensor questioned the fact that while the specifications called for a thickness of one millimeter, the contractor only used 0.008 mm.
Then aside from the fact that the color red on government plates easily fade, the barcode does not work and is not machine readable.
LTO has already inaugurated its plate-making plant last April while the contract for the procurement of 775,000 pairs of motor vehicle plates and 1.7 million pieces of motorcycle plates to address the plate requirements from July 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2017 has already been awarded to Trojan Computer Forms Manufacturing Corp. and JH Tonnjes E.A.S.T. GmbH joint venture.
The new plant can produce 22,400 pieces of motor vehicle plates per day on a two-shift, eight hour per shift schedule. The automated embossing machine which is part of the contract can produce 11,200 plates per day on a two-shift schedule.
PPI-JKG has already caused so much problems. Merely imposing penalties for delays on their deliveries will not solve the problem. Tugade is even toying with the idea of just asking them to deliver blank plates. If they were not able to deliver on time highquality plates which motorists are actually paying for, how can DOTr and LTO expect them to change their ways? They are not the only suppliers. Maybe, our government should simply cancel the contract and then bid it out again. PPI-JKG does not deserve the contract. And then of course, those government officials who were responsible for giving the contract to them on a silver platter deserve to go to jail.
For comments, e-mail at mareyes@philstarmedia.com