Goldilocks cakes for seniors cheaper but smaller —Makati councilor

The winning bidder in Makati City's procurement of birthday cakes for senior citizens may deliver cakes cheaper than those of the supplier under suspended Mayor Junjun Binay, but the treats will be smaller in size, a city councilor identified with the local official said on Tuesday.

Acting Mayor Kid Peña has initiated bidding for the procurement of the city's birthday cakes after a Senate inquiry indicated alleged overpricing in the program for seniors.

"At first glance, it is lower than the maximum bid amount. But they failed to compare the specs as contained in the purchase requests," Councilor Marie Alethea Casal-Uy said in a statement.

Uy pointed out that the new cakes will be smaller at nine inches by four inches. The cakes delivered by the previous supplier, Timstate Food and Beverages Corporation or Bakerite, are bigger at nine inches by six inches.

Goldilocks submitted the lone bid for the contract to supply birthday cakes from August 15 to December 31, 2015. The bakeshop submitted a bid of P8,666,080.50, P700,000 less than the P9.36-million budget allocated for the project.

If approved, the prices of Goldilocks cakes would be as follows: chocolate chiffon, P285; marble chiffon, P275.50; mocha chiffon, P266.

Bakerite, which operates in Quiapo, Manila, replaced Cups and Mugs Kitchenette as the supplier of birthday cakes in March 2014. It used to price each cake at P306.75.

In Bakerite's bid to supply the cakes for June 15 to December 31 this year however, each cake was already priced at P354.65. A purchase order had been prepared by the city government for the contract but the said document, as well as the notice of award, was left unsigned by Mayor Binay.

Uy found it suspicious that the prices submitted by Goldilocks in its bid for the contract to supply cakes to the city's senior citizens was nearly the same as Peña estimated.

“Even before the bidding was done, Peña had been directly quoted in news reports saying that the new cakes would only cost between P265 to P280. It turns out that the bid prices submitted by Goldilocks for the cakes are almost exactly the same as the prices stated by Peña,” Uy said.

"At first glance, it is lower than the maximum bid amount. But they failed to compare the specs as contained in the purchase requests," she said.

Peña earlier told GMA News Online that only one bidder participated because of the low budget for the contract as well as the transparency entailed in the bidding process.

"Maraming nagbigay ng interes nung una, lalaban daw ng pababaan kaso yung transparency kasi nandoon kaya siguro hindi naging attractive," he said.

Peña has temporarily taken over post of Binay, son of Vice President Jejomar Binay, after he was ordered suspended over his supposed involvement in the alleged irregularities in the construction of a ten-storey building in Makati Science High School. —NB, GMA News