AllCard Inc. said on Wednesday that they were open to entering into a compromise with the government but that they should not be blamed for backlogs in the issuance of driver’s license cards.
The distribution of license cards has been affected after a Quezon City court stopped the Land Transportation Office from awarding the contract to the winning bidder, Banner Plasticard Inc., following a petition filed by AllCard.
According to the Department of Transportation, AllCard lost despite pitching the lowest bid due to delays in its other contracts with other government agencies.
The company, however, said it was denied due process.
“AllCard was cheaper by P42 million than the next bidder, but in this case, the DOTr informed AllCard during the post-qualification evaluation that it was post-disqualified because of their correspondence with another government agency that said Allcard was in delay, but when Allcard sought to find out what were the reasons for the post-disqualification and also asked for a copy of the correspondence, they refused to provide the correspondence and they were claiming it’s confidential,” AllCard lawyer Karen Jimeno said in an interview with GMA News Online.
“If you look also at the events that occurred when AllCard tried to file a motion for reconsideration within the reglementary period, dineny agad within a day. In fact, if you read the court’s decision, their finding was in less than 24 hours, dineny yung motion for reconsideration and the court even noted na within 24 hours, mayroong apat na milestones sa procurement process na nangyari, which is actually unusual when you think of the typical government process for procurement, and that alone is a denial of due process,” she added.
On Tuesday, LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II appealed to AllCard not to pursue the case anymore ”for the sake of the Filipino people.”
Jimeno said AllCard was open to discussing the issue.
“Allcard said that they are open to discussing, they are open to a compromise, but before we even say that they will do that, we want to hear from the procuring entity—the DOTr, LTO—what they plan to do,” she said.
She added that if the LTO had procured “early enough,” the backlogs would have been prevented.
“Yung backlog should have been addressed in the planning. Yung pagprocure nila should have been early enough para hindi na nagkabacklog. Hindi na pwede itong gamiting delayed excuse now to right a wrong they created themselves,” Jimeno said.
”If there were some irregularities in the bidding, it’s also their fault they can’t say pabayaan na lang yung irregularity sa bidding at let’s allow this to proceed because there’s a backlog,” she said. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
