DOTC’s P 1.72 Billion AFCS Project Down to 3 Bidders

Wazzup Pilipinas!

SM, Ayala-MPIC, and Comworks Consortia qualify for Financial Evaluation Stage

Three (3) of the five (5) bidders vying for the P 1.72 Billion Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) Project of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) have passed the technical evaluation stage, and will proceed to the financial evaluation stage on Monday, 9 December 2013.

“We have been speeding up the process. At the rate we are going, we should be able to award the contract by January 2014,” said DOTC Spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal.

The SM Consortium, the AF Consortium of the Ayala and Metro Pacific groups, and the Comworks and Berjaya Consortium have all satisfied the technical requirements of the transport agency. Their financial proposals will be opened at 10:00am on Monday, after which the DOTC will conduct financial evaluation over the next couple of weeks in accordance with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) Law.

Meanwhile, the E-Trans Solutions Joint Venture and the Megawide-Suyen-Eurolink Consortium both failed to meet the bid requirements, having substantial deficiencies which did not demonstrate their ability to implement the project.

In the case of E-Trans Solutions, its technical proposal did not describe the required Conditions for Use of the project, which would protect the card user’s data privacy. It was also found to be incomplete, unclear, and did not show compliance with the project’s scheme provider principles. Moreover, its business plan did not follow the projection computations contained in the draft Concession Agreement.

As for Megawide-Suyen-Eurolink, its business plan was found to be incomplete and inconsistent. It did not contain the required project internal rate of return, making it impossible to evaluate the project’s feasibility. In addition, the payment and revenue numbers it indicated in one section of the business plan contradicted the very same items contained in another section. It also pegged its post-tax equity return at -2.64%, which indicates that the proposal may not be self-sustaining.

Since the disqualified groups failed to meet the project’s technical requirements, their financial proposals will no longer be opened.

“We will carefully review the financial proposals of the 3 remaining groups only. At the end of the day, we must make sure that both government and the public will get the most advantageous terms possible,” added Sagcal.