Bidder sues DOH execs after losing P8-M hospital project

A COMPANY has gone to court to try to annul the decision of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the Department of Health (DOH) 7 disqualifying it from participating in a government-funded project worth P8.6 million.

Ana Construction, represented by its owner Edgar Maningo, filed the damage suit before the Regional Trial Court against five BAC members and a director of the DOH-Center for Health and Development (CHD).

In the petition, Maningo said he was declared the winning bidder for the upgrading project of the second phase of the PNP hospital in Camp Sotero Cabahug.

But after the post-qualification process, Ana Construction was disqualified on Aug. 2, 2012 due to the typographical errors in the list of materials submitted to the BAC.

Maningo filed a motion for reconsideration, but the BAC denied it.

The petitioner said the disqualification of his construction firm was “highly questionable” as he has complied with the requirements provided in Section 58 of Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

“The respondents tried to complicate the subject matter of the instant case,” Maningo’s petition read.

The act of the respondents in preventing the petitioner to correct the list of materials was prejudicial to the government, Maningo said.

The petitioner said the respondents also gravely abused their discretionary authority.

Maningo said the “reckless and abusive” acts of the respondents caused him “public humiliation and sleepless nights.”

The businessman sought P150,000 in actual damages and P300,000 in moral damages.