Firetruck procurement process fair, BFP tells House probe

There are no favored suppliers in the Bureau of Fire Protection's (BFP) procurement of firetrucks, the bureau's director told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

During the hearing of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, BFP Director Louie Puracan said steps are in place to ensure competitive bidding.

The inquiry sought to look into the BFP's alleged restrictive process in buying firetrucks that favors a few contractors due to a clause limiting qualified bidders to those that had been engaged in the manufacturing or assembly of fire trucks and/or rescue truck vehicles in the Philippines for at least 15 years.

"Our bidding is not tailor fit, your honors. Marami pong bidders ang nakaka-bid [A lot participated in the bidders]," Puracan told lawmakers.

He added that the 15 years requirement is for the BFP to see the bidder's track record but this has been removed last year.

"There were suggestions to remove the 15 years [requirement] para mas maraming makasama, mas marami kaming pagpipilian and mura at quality [so that we will have options]. That is why the management decided to remove the 15 years requirement," he added.

Puracan also denied that the contractors of the firetrucks had a 21% to a 61% profit margin.

"I don't believe so, your honor, na ganun kalaki ang profit," he said.

The inquiry stemmed from House Resolution 15 filed by House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan party-list.

Bicol Saro party-list Representative Brian Yamsuan, during the hearing, called on the BFP to review the terms of reference (TOR) and specifications in bidding out fire trucks to prevent allegations of irregularities in the agency’s  procurement process.

This was after it was revealed during the hearing that the BFP included purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) in its acquisition of  firetrucks in some contracts.

"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 said.

Castro backed Yamsuan, saying "Isn't it more prudent if we separate the bidding for PPE and firetruck rather than you including PPE in this just to comply with the P15 million Agency Budget Ceiling?"

Puracan, in response, said they included the PPEs in the contract for efficiency and exigency.

"There are bidders [who sell a firetruck] at P11 million, P12 million, so to maximize the budget ceiling we decided to include PPE [purchase] as technical specification because otherwise, we have to make another request from the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) who will have to set another ABC and we have to make another budget request for PPE," Puracan said.

Puracan said the DBM allowed this scheme.

In response, the House public order and safety panel asked BFP to submit a document proving that DBM signed of to such procurement of PPE using the budget for buying firetrucks. —KBK, GMA Integrated News