Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas today, June 19, revealed that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) would procure some 2,500 units of patrol vehicles worth P2.08 billion to increase police visibility, mobility, and crime-fighting ability.
Roxas assured an "open, transparent and fair bidding" process before senior executives of about a dozen car manufacturers and dealers whom he invited at the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame to show them what the PNP is specifically looking for.
The patrol vehicles would be a "single cab pickup with a carrier at the back." "We want the best price, we want the best value," he said.
Roxas said one of the objectives in inviting car dealers and manufacturers was to show them a transparent bidding, which will be a "two-envelope" process involving technical and financial evaluation. Only those who pass the technical evaluation would be qualified to enter the financial evaluation phase.
"Hindi natin papayagan na ang tuwid na daan ni Presidente PNoy ay mababahiran. Inaasahan natin na ang bukas at malinis na prosesong ito ay mag-aambag sa ating isinusulong na kultura ng dangal sa hanay ng kapulisan," Roxas said.
He assured car manufacturers of the availability of funds for the entire procurement because "we are buying 2,500 units, bulto at hindi sachet-style ang procurement."
Several old-generation PNP patrol vehicles were put on display on the street fronting the multi-purpose building. Roxas invited the senior executives from Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Toyota, Kia, Mazda, Isuzu, BMW, Honda, and other major car manufacturing groups in the country to "look under the hood and check out the specifications to get an idea of what the PNP wants."
The Secretary was accompanied at the briefing by the PNP Deputy Chief for Administration Ager Ontog Jr. and the PNP Deputy Chief for Operations Felipe Rojas.
"Ang pinakamahalagang prinsipyo na iiral dito ay ang pagiging hayag, maayos, transparent at hindi darating sa hablahan," Roxas said. "Rerebisahin at papatibayin yung bagong specs upang hindi magkaroon ng bahid at mantsa ang proseso."
"We will go through the process of RA 9184," he added, referring to the Government Procurement Reform Act, which governs all government bidding and procurement processes.
In a Power Point presentation for the bidding process, PNP Deputy Director Rojas explained that before the procurement, the DILG and PNP will come up with several stages, which include planning, specification, public bidding, delivery, and acceptance, and payment to the winning bidder.
Roxas said there would be a timetable for the bidding process to enable bidding participants to prepare and complete their documentary, technical and financial requirements.
The bidding process, he said, would start once the DILG-PNP shall have placed an advertisement for an 'invitation to bid' in major newspapers of general circulation, which will indicate the type of vehicle to be bought, its specifications, the bidding date and the ABC.
Seven calendar days after the 'invitation to bid' appeared in the papers, the DILG-PNP and the prospective bidders will conduct a pre-bidding conference, which will set the dates (to be done within 12 to 30 days) on the receiving and opening of bids (opening of 1st envelope, technical and preliminary exam; and 2nd envelope, financial; and later, bid evaluation and ranking.)
After the opening of the two envelopes, there would be a Post Qualification or determination of the winning bidder, to be followed by the issuance of 'Notice of Award' from 7 to 30 calendar days. The Notice of Award is being issued by the Head of the Procuring Entity.
Once the Notice of Award is issued to the winning bidder, the concerned PNP officials will prepare and sign the necessary contract. When the contract is signed and approved, the winning bidder will be issued a "notice to proceed' which means the delivery of the procured vehicles. All deliveries will still be subject to examination/scrutiny by members of the Delivery and Acceptance Committee of the PNP.
According to Rojas, the funds for the vehicle procurement would be sourced from the unused funds, the following:
- ₱241.5 million PNP Capability Enhancement Program (CEP) for 2012;
- ₱894.4 million from CEP 2013
- ₱944.4 million from the PNP Operational Transformation Plan (PNP OTP).
Both amounts from the CEP for 2013 and PNP OTP are still awaiting issuance of Special Allotment Release Order or SARO.
The DILG chief has tasked the officials of the PNP to come up with new specifications for the new vehicles it would bid out which include its fuel, engine displacement, horsepower, transmission among others.
"On the part of the PNP, I will give them the challenge of coming out with new specs for the new vehicles to be procured, the attachment of roofing and convertible seats, with the end in view na walang question on their end, na walang bahid ng anomalya o kontrobersya" the DILG chief said.
The car manufacturers interested in joining the bidding would be required to produce a prototype of the vehicle they would supply to the PNP.
"We will give them (car dealers) 30 to 45 days to come up with their respective prototypes which they would present to the various PNP offices involved in the bidding," he said.
From the Department of Interior and Local Government
