DND to bid out ammo supply deals

From The Standard (Feb 12): DND  to bid out ammo supply deals

The bids and award committee   of the Department of National Defense met with suppliers during a pre-bid conference on Wednesday at  Camp Aguinaldo for the procurement of three different rifle ammunitions worth P522 million.

The DND-BAC for the projects is led by Assistant Secretary Ernesto Boac, a retired Army general.  

At  least six  representatives of  foreign suppliers such as ATK of United States, the controversial MKEK (Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation) of Turkey with its local partner System Nomics Philippines, and Expal of Spain. Two more companies from Brazil and Israel  also attended the conference  but  only ATK and MKEK  bought bid documents.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re not qualified to join the bidding because we’ve until the last day of schedule to buy a bid document worth P50,000,”  a  source said. 
 
Also present during the conference was lawyer Editha Santos, reportedly in the company of MKE representatives and their local representative System Nomics owner Alan Mendoza, another source said.  

Santos was former chief accountant of the Philippine Army and among  seven  officials who were  suspended for six  months in 2009 by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the questionable  procurement of Army boots worth P102.1 million in 2004.

Santos was also linked to the P1.2 billion helicopter   deal controversy that  some DND officials entered into with the US-based Rice Aircraft Services Incorporated.
  
 On  the  ammo contracts, the DND broke down the bids  into three projects: P534 million for SS109/M855, P100 million for the Ball Linked and P102 million for M193.  

    Another    source said that there was actually a pre-bid conference on    November 4, 2015 but the  discussion   on the procurement of the SS109 ammo   was   eventually scrapped for some reasons.

Just recently, the Army announced the completion of delivery of less than 60,000 brand new M4 rifles from US-based manufacturer Remington. A portion of the delivered rifles sent to the  Philippine Navy.

The BAC  set the bid opening for the  ammunition supply on February 23, 2016.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/news/-main-stories/199135/dnd-to-bid-out-ammo-supply-deals.html