Five (5) out of the nine (9) consortia which sought to qualify for the P 1.72-Billion Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) Project have been shortlisted by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), the Transport Department disclosed on Wednesday (May 8, 2013).
The 5 bidders which prequalified are: (1) AF Consortium, led by the Metro Pacific and Ayala groups; (2) Comworks Consortium, which includes Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp.; (3) E-Trans Solutions Joint Venture, Inc. Consortium, which includes Eastwest Banking Corp.; (4) Megawide-Suyen-Eurolink Consortium, which will tap the experience of Singapore’s EZ-Link Pte. Ltd.; and (5) SM Consortium, led by several companies of the Sy family.
“We are pleased to announce that 5 interested groups have prequalified to bid for the AFCS Project, one of our first PPP (Public-Private Partnership) offerings. This means that we are getting closer to identifying who our private sector partner will be in bringing a modern commuting experience to the public,” said the DOTC.
Based on the current timeline, the prequalified consortia will have until August 30, 2013 to prepare their bids for the project. According to the DOTC, “[W]e set this deadline for bid submission to give bidders the maximum amount of time to come up with their best proposals for government without compromising our schedule. As long as we have the full support and cooperation of the bidders, we will remain on track with our targets.”
Meanwhile, the 4 disqualified groups are: (1) Lamco Consortium; (2) Mega Lucky United Consortium; (3) MTD-PRLM Consortium; and (4) San Miguel Transport Solutions Consortium.
In the case of Lamco, it nominated consortium member New San Jose Builders, Inc. to meet the project’s financial qualification requirement. However, the documents provided during the submission deadline last April 12 showed that its net worth fell below the P 1-Billion minimum. Additional documents submitted by Lamco after the deadline were not considered by the DOTC-LRTA Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), since this would have amounted to a bid modification.
For Mega Lucky, there was no proof that its members have no unsatisfactory record. The required basic information and general information sheets of its members were also absent.
Meanwhile, MTD-PRLM’s submission lacked proof establishing the required experience of its nominated AFCS operator. In addition, its Project Implementation Plan and Project Development Plan failed to show its ability to undertake the project due to missing components.
Lastly, San Miguel Transport Solutions’ Project Implementation Plan and Project Development Plan did not include certain required components, similar to MTD-PRLM.
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