Good Afternoon Po.
This pertains to our Procurement of (general) services. We only require in our bid documents the submission of SLCC "For the procurement of Non-expendable Supplies and Services: The Bidder must have completed a single contract that is similar to this Project, equivalent to at least fifty percent (50%) of the ABC."
We have 6 bidders and the lowest calculated bidder however submitted 2 similar contracts, each contract is below 50% of the ABC of the bid project instead of the required "single largest contract" of at least 50% of the ABC as per our requirement.
The Bidder asserted Section 23.4.1.3 (a) The bidder should have completed at least two (2) similar contracts and the aggregate contract amounts should be equivalent to at least the percentage of the ABC as required above; and..........
In my understanding, we will only resort to letter "(a)" option if, at the outset and after conducting market research, the Procuring Entity can already determine that imposing the same will likely result to: (a) failure of bidding, or (b) monopoly that will defeat the purpose of competitive bidding, the Procuring Entity, in lieu of the above, may require the options (a) or (b)......
Since we have 6 bidders, and detailed evaluation is ongoing, and the next lowest bidders (some) are seemingly responsive in terms of Tech and financial documents, and we can not yet say that there is already a failure of bidding at this stage, can we deny the argument of the bidder?
Thank you for your positive response to our query.