THE Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) yesterday denied the militant Makabayan bloc’s claim that its procurement system is “restrictive, questionable” and even tailor-fitted to favor some bidders, saying many companies are still participating in it.
Director Louie Puracan assured lawmakers during the hearing of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety that the BFP adheres to the guidelines to ensure competitive bidding.
The inquiry was held after party-list Reps. France Castro (ACT), Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (Kabataan) filed House Resolution No. 15, calling an inquiry into the BFP’s fire truck procurement bidding process in line with its modernization program
The congressional investigation was focused on the clause limiting qualified bidders to only those that have been engaged in the manufacturing or assembly of fire trucks and/or rescue truck vehicles in the country for at least 15 years, a stringent requirement which allegedly shooed away many potential bidders.
Puracan said the requirement, which was meant to ensure a bidder’s track record, was already removed last year “so that many more can participate, giving us more options, cheaper and with good quality.”
“That is why the management decided to remove the 15 years requirement,” he told the panel chaired by Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, adding that he also does not believe claims that the contractors of firetrucks get as much as 21 percent to a 61 percent profit margin.
Rep. Brian Yamsuan (PL, Bicol Saro) urged the BFP to review the terms of reference (TOR) and specifications in bidding out firetrucks to prevent allegations of irregularities in the its procurement process after it was revealed that the BFP, in some of the contracts, included purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the acquisition of firetrucks.
Yamsuan, a former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), said such review and change within the BFP “will also help to finally end the perennial backlog of firetrucks in the country.”
“Since 2006 when I was in the DILG and up to now, there is still a backlog. Why can’t we resolve this? And at the same time, we always have this issue – there’s always an issue about overprice, about favored bidders. These should end. Let’s have a proper TOR and specifications for all the processes that suppliers can follow,” Yamsuan told Puracan.
Castro agreed with Yamsuan, asking Puracan: “Isn’t it more prudent if we separate the bidding for PPE and firetruck rather than you including the PPE in this just to comply with the P15 million agency budget ceiling?”
Puracan, who said the Department of Management (DBM) allowed such scheme, admitted that the BFP included the PPE sets in the contract to “maximize the budget ceiling” because “otherwise, we have to make another request from the DBM who will have to set another ABC and we have to make another budget request for PPE.”
The panel ordered the BFP to submit the document showing the DBM’s supposed approval of the process, along with documents listing and defining the functions of the units under the agency, the figures on its backlog on firetrucks, and its procurement plan for the current fiscal year.
Also during the hearing, Kolonwel Trading’s Whelma Lanzuela, supplier of the BFP’s firetrucks in 2015, questioned the Commission on Audit’s 2017 findings that 40 percent of the vehicles were defective, saying the non-usage of the P258 million cash bond as part of the warranty was proof that that the firetrucks were in perfect condition when delivered.
The June 2017 COA report said 176 firetrucks were defective, with some having engine oil leaks, defective engine relays, faulty starter and ignition switch and other issues.
The China-made Jiangte firetrucks, which cost around P5 million each for a total contract cost of P2.575 billion, were acquired during the previous Aquino administration.
“With the said defects, the BFP did not order replacement parts. To be fair to the current BFP administration because it did not happen during their time, but the drivers do not know how to change gears properly,” Lanzuela told the panel.
