CDC voids Mimosa deal with Korean firm

CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE – Officials of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has declared null and void the notice of contract awarded to a Korean firm on July 5 after it failed to comply with the conditions set in the Terms of Reference (TOR) in the bid proposal. CDC President Antonio Ng said the Board of Directors revoked the Notice of Award to NTM of South Korea following its failure to sign on time a lease agreement with minimum upfront payment. He said the 2nd Mimosa bidding is a failure. NTM Jin Hung should pay a minimum upfront payment of some P1.65 billion within 30 days to take over the Mimosa Leisure Estate (MLE) but the former failed to pay. “NTM, through its representative Kim Hyun Joo, received the notice on June 5, so it is now exactly 30 days from receipt of notice of award," Ng said. He added about P920 million or 80 percent of P1.65 billion should have been remitted to CDC by the winning proponent after the issuance of Notice of Award. After securing a legal opinion from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), CDC cancelled the awarding. The OGCC said “there is a need for the immediate signing of the lease agreement" between CDC and the Korean-Filipino joint venture and the compliance of ‘deliverables’ to the state-owned firm as stated in the TOR. The OGCC supports the CDC position since Philippine bidding laws require strict compliance to TORs that are prepared prior to actual bidding, Ng said. Ng added CDC’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) conducted pre-bid conferences where “all bidders have had the chance to raise issues, including payment terms as embodied in TOR." The SBAC also issued 14 bid bulletins from December 5, 2005 to the actual bidding day on May 26, 2006. The bulletins contained replies to questions and requests for changes by other bidders. “NTM Jin Hung did not raise issues. Proper time for raising issues is before the actual bid proper, not after bidding," Ng said. On the other hand, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin and Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales had earlier urged the Senate to conduct an investigation on the alleged “lack of transparency" in the Mimosa bidding. In recent meetings of the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC), Lazatin and Morales admitted that Avenue Asia (one of the 14 bidders on Mimosa’s privatization) approached them and complained of alleged “irregularities" in the bidding. The CDC had repeatedly denied allegations saying that the bidding was held with “honesty and fairness" to all the 14 bidders. Ng said the GOCC, representatives from the Land Bank of the Philippines, Commission on Audit and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) have witnessed the bidding process. - GMANews.TV