Filinvest claims anomaly in Megawide-GMR bid

Mactan Cebu International Airport. CDN FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The controversy over the Mactan-Cebu International Airport terminal project took a new twist this week after Filinvest Development Corp.—the second-highest bidder for the deal—said that it had spotted an anomaly early in the bidding process.

In a statement, FDC spokesman Joseph Yap said that his group, which submitted a P14-billion peso offer, did not, however, raise the issue then because it was focused on its own bid for the project.

Filinvest earlier pointed out that one of the members of the board of directors of the airport affiliates of GMR Infrastructure Ltd., which is part of the GMR-Megawide consortium, is the managing director of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), which is part of the First Philippine Airports consortium.

Filinvest claims that this is a “clear and unquestionable” violation of Section 5.6.c of the bid rules and calls for the disqualification of both GMR-Megawide and First Philippine Airports.

An official from the government’s Public-Private Partnership Center said, however, that Filinvest should have raised its objection to the supposed conflict of interest situation before the bid was held and not after.

“It is not a bidder’s primary responsibility to identify bidding rule violations,” Filinvest’s Yap countered. “Our main responsibility as a bidder is to prepare for our own bid and ensure that it is in accordance with the bidding rules.”

In that bidding process, the consortium of construction firm Megawide Corp. and GMR bested the field with a P14.4-billion offer, edging out the Filinvest-Changi Airport partnership by only P400 million.

“The bidding rules specifically provide for a post-qualification review after the financial bids are opened in order for the [project bids and awards committee] to verify the correctness of the statements and information  submitted by the highest bidder and to make sure that the highest bidder has not violated the conflict of interest rule, among other rules, before an award can be made,” Yap explained.

He added that a violation remained a violation regardless of when it was discovered.

“This holds true even after the bid is awarded,” the company’s statement said. “Bidders are to be qualified or disqualified based on the bid rules.”

According to Filinvest, the bid rules specifically state that if a conflict of interest violation is discovered at any time, it is cause for disqualification.

It further states that when the highest bidder is disqualified, the bids and awards committee will move to post-qualify the next highest bidder.

If GMR-Megawide is disqualified, the Filinvest-Changi Airports International consortium would be deemed the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, the Megawide-GMR consortium has refuted the allegations of conflict of interest and dismissed Filinvest-CAI consortium’s complaint as another effort to undermine the bid process for the project.

“With respect to the allegations of conflict of interest, we would like to highlight our belief that these are mischievous in nature, and these are clearly aimed at unduly influencing the outcome of the bidding process and pre-empting the post-qualification process being conducted by DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) at present,” Manish Kalghatgi, the group head of corporate communications of GMR, said earlier.

The Megawide—GMR consortium has provided detailed clarifications and documentation to the government on this issue, added Louie Ferrer, who is Megawide’s chief managing officer.

“Megawide—GMR consortium believes that this is yet another attempt by the Filinvest—CAI consortium to exert undue influence on PBAC and seek our disqualification after we emerged as the highest bidder for the Mactan-Cebu Airport project,” Ferrer added.