Saturday, October 18, 2008 Bid for hauling of city garbage fails By Jane Cadalig
CITY residents and officials would have to continue bearing the problem on garbage as none of the bidders for the hauling of the city's garbage failed to meet the requirements to win the contract.
Acting Baguio City Mayor Daniel Farinas said the three bidders were not able to meet some of the terms of reference of the bidding.
He, however, said present garbage haulers would continue their services, as arranged by the City Environment, Parks and Management Office (Cepmo).
Among the conditions that were not complied with by the haulers, Farinas said, was the non-existence of a site, owned by the proponent, which would serve as a handling area or where the wastes would be segregated to ensure only the residuals would be delivered to the sanitary landfill.
The requirement is for the bidder to own a handling yard. Farinas said none of the proponents met this necessity.
"The area should be solely owned by the bidder, leased or joint ventures are not allowed. This is our way of ensuring the winning bidder will not abandon us," he said.
"Some of the bidders only submitted deeds of sale, others submitted 'to follow' documents, which are not allowed in the bidding process," he added.
Other than owning a garbage handling area, bidders are required to have at least 25 units of garbage trucks, with minimum loading capacities of eight tons each.
From the seven bidders who responded to the city's call, four have qualified but three bidders submitted their proposals to haul the city's garbage. The winning proponent is supposed to start its work Thursday.
Due to the failure of the bid, Farinas said the City Government is exploring all possible means to come up with a solution to address the garbage problem.
Twelve and a half million pesos to purchase four dump trucks were already allotted.
"It is more practical for us to purchase garbage vehicles than to pay the haulers," he said.
Since July, when the city engaged the services of private garbage haulers to deliver the city's wastes to the sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac, the city's bill already reached around P30 million, according to Farinas.
