CITY government officials of Baguio are in dilemma on which contractor to choose to haul more than 120 tons of residual garbage produced by the city daily.
Committee on Laws Chairman Councilor Richard Cariño revealed on Monday the non confirmation of a memorandum of agreement entered by the city last August 8, 2012 to private hauler Maria Rhodora Flores of N4th Enterprises, which currently hauls residual wastes to Urdaneta City engineered sanitary landfill.
This after a Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) resolution last February 15 also recommended Engineered Sanitary Landfill Services, including hauling and tipping fees to Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation, which according to the BAC, offers a more competitive and cheaper rates compared to the private hauler in Urdaneta.
Both N4th Enterprises and Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation currently have existing contracts with the City Government signed by Mayor Mauricio Domogan.
N4th Enterprises entered into a two-year hauling contract with the City Government last August 8, 2012, but were only allowed to haul out waste last December 12, 2012 according to Flores.
Domogan said this was the time when Metro Clark was still offering fees at P1,600 for tipping and hauling -- a rate much higher than Urdaneta’s which was pegged at P1,522 for hauling and tipping.
Moreover, Clark is farther than Urdaneta.
This is the reason then that the city entered into a contract with N4th last year “to save on hauling expenses,” Domogan said.
Meanwhile, after the city discontinued Metro Clark’s operation, the company decided to lower its rates than that of Urdaneta City. Metro Clark then entered into a contract with the city only last January 25.
Metro Clark general manager Rolando Tongco, in a letter to the city mayor, said they revised their tipping fee to P550 per metric ton given the reasonable volume of the city’s waste to be disposed at the Kalangitan landfill site in Capas, Tarlac.
BAC chairperson and General Services Officer Romeo Concio said that compared to the N4th’s offer in the Urdaneta landfill, Metro Clark’s offer is now cheaper at P1,350 for tipping and hauling services compared to Urdaneta’s offer of P1,522 per ton.
Concio said this could roughly translate to more than P1 million in savings for hauling and tipping fees compared to the Urdaneta landfill which will only save the city P438,000 a month.
This, according to Councilor Cariño, now poses a problem to the city in terms of the legality of the contracts entered by the City Government as both companies are now asking for the implementation of their respective transactions but stressed both contracts are yet to be confirmed by the City Council’s Committee on Laws.
However, in a special executive-legislative session Tuesday morning, the mayor told members of the City Council that they must confirm the contract entered by the city with Urdaneta landfill contractor N4th Enterprises under Flores saying it is this company which saved the city at the time when Metro Clark was still offering higher hauling and tipping fees.
“We don’t want that somebody that has helped the city in the time of our need will be left alone without being able to recoup expenses she incurred,” he said.
He added that Baguio City must honor its contract with Flores instead of Metro Clark, adding the lower offer only arrived later and that Flores has already incurred expenses for equipment including a payloader and hauling equipment.
The mayor also added that no bidding occurred at that time because of the emergency situation the city is facing in looking for areas to haul its residual wastes.
Cariño, meanwhile, sought clarifications from Flores on why the City Government could not directly transact with the local government of Urdaneta in hauling its trash.
Both Flores and Concio, however, reasoned that the Urdaneta government does not transact with other local governments and only transact engineered sanitary landfill hauling services with three approved private haulers that include N4th Enterprises.
During the Council session, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, meanwhile, questioned Metro Clark for not reducing their prices then when the city used to haul out trash to their facility.
She also asked Metro Clark if they will be able to reimburse the previous surplus payments which the city could have also saved. The Metro Clark representative said this will be relayed to their board of directors for possible consideration.
The Council and the city mayor on Thursday moved in seeking legal opinion from the City Legal Office on which garbage hauling contract will be honored by the local government.
Councilors are expected to reconvene within the week after the BAC meeting to choose the hauling contract to confirm and settle the conflicts with both N4th Enterprise and Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation.