MANILA - Two out of the three firms bidding to supply driver’s license cards passed the first stage of scrutiny by the Department of Transportation's Bids and Awards Committee.
The DOTr is racing against time as the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has run out of plastic cards used in driver's licenses, prompting them to issue digital versions.
The submission and opening of bids were livestreamed on the DOTr’s official social media page.
The two bidders have supplied plastic cards for the government before.
Allcard Inc. posted a bid for the driver’s license project at P177 million, including taxes. The company was also the contractor for the P126 million GSIS UMID Visa Debit project from 2016 to 2018.
In 2015, Allcard Inc. bagged the driver’s license card project after submitting the lowest bid of P336 million.
Meanwhile, Banner Plastic Cards Inc. posted a higher bid than AllCard at P219 million inclusive of taxes for the procurement of license cards. Banner is the contractor that printed and customized the Landbank Visa Debit Card.
In 2017, Banner also entered the bidding for driver’s license cards. It offered the lowest calculated bid. However, it was Dermalog who bagged the project at that time.
Both AllCard and Banner offered lower bids than the government’s pegged price of the project of P240 million to produce around 5.2 million pieces of cards.
On the other hand, Pangasinan-based Peter John Enterprises also joined the bid for the driver’s license card project.
However, Peter John Enterprises failed to meet one of the eligibility requirements set by the DOTr’s Bids and Awards Committee.
Based on its records submitted to the BAC, the company supplied a polycarbonate electronic ID system to all municipalities of Pangasinan in 2021.
The Technical Working Group observed that the bidder did not state that it complies with the technical-specific parameters for the project. Some of the minimum requirements are that the pre-printed cards should be made out of 100 percent polycarbonate with safety and security features.
DOTr said that the Pangasinan-based bidder could still submit a request for reconsideration.
After passing the opening of bids, the bidders who passed must still go through a detailed evaluation of the bids.
The agency targets to award the project on June 15 and the earliest delivery of cards in July.
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