A BIDDING to hire an advertising agency that would help showcase Capitol’s programs and projects was declared a failure last Monday, an official of the Province’s bids and awards committee (BAC) said yesterday.

John Siegfred Sepe, head of the Provincial General Services Office and acting BAC chairman, told SunStar Cebu that no interested bidder showed up.

Section 35 of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act (RA) 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, allows the declaration of the failure of bidding when there are no bids received, no bid qualifies as the lowest calculated responsive bid or highest rated responsive bid or whenever a bidder with highest or lowest calculated responsive bid refuses, without justifiable cause to accept the award of contract.

But Sepe said that representatives of Sonshine Radio and Ideaz Solutions and Advertising showed up during the pre-bidding conference last June 6.

Sepe said that he discussed with the two firms the technical, financial and legal requirements needed before they could make their respective bids.

He, however, was surprised that the two firms didn’t return.

Sepe said he doesn’t know why the two firms didn’t proceed with their plan to bid.

Despite the failure of bidding, though, Sepe said they will publish another invitation for interested bidders.

Based on RA 9184, the BAC will conduct a mandatory review and evaluation of the terms, conditions and specifications in the bidding documents, including its cost estimates, to determine the reason for the failed bidding.

Based on its findings, the BAC will revise the terms, conditions and specifications and if necessary, adjust the approved budget for the contract, subject to the required approvals, before conducting a re-bidding.

This was the first bidding held by the Capitol for the hiring of an advertising agency with an allocated budget of P3.2 million.

Earlier, Gov. Hilario Davide III said that they need to hire an advertising agency to help the Public Information Office promote the administration’s programs and projects.