Gov’t repeating messy vehicle plate contract?

Millions of motor vehicles run around with no registration plates. Chaos has ruled the roads since transport officials loused up in 2014. The platemaking was funded irregularly, and the contractor was unfit. Three government branches and an independent agency had to step in. The Audit Commission forbade payments, Congress confirmed the wrongs, the Supreme Court halted the deal, and the Solicitor General stopped defending it. Three hundred thousand pairs of car and 400,000 pieces of motorcycle plates got stuck at the piers.

Present officials might repeat the mess if they don’t watch out.

Last Sept. the Land Transportation Office held a re-bidding for the platemaking. Its funding of P998,800,000 supposedly came from the 2017 General Appropriations Act. Only three firms participated, all German in joint ventures with locals. J.H. Tonnjes East GmbH with Trojan Computer Forms posted the lowest bid, P978,800,000. Second was EHA Hoffman Intl GmbH with Madras Security Printers and iPay Commerce Enterprise, at P980,000,000. The joint venture of Utsch AG (also known as Erich Utsch AG) and Holy Family Printing Corp. was disqualified for lack of a crucial certification.

During the ensuing post-evaluation in Oct. suddenly came forth an anonymous memo to the LTO chief and the bidding chairman. It alleged that lowest bidder J.H. Tonnjes East GmbH and the disqualified Utsch AG, Germany’s two largest vehicle plate-makers, have an existing business partnership since 2012. Their venture is called Utsch Tonnjes International, or UTI. Proof was in two official weblinks: https://www.utsch.com/out/media/en/UTSCH_Company_Presentation.pdf?lang=1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utsch_AG.

In the wake of the stunning revelation swirled reports that all three German bidders were in fact intertwined. Utsch AG then posted on its website two clarifications entitled “Erich Utsch AG Is the Original” (see https://www.utsch.com/en/news/ and https://www.utsch.com/en/news/ERICH-UTSCH-AG-is-the-original/). While the intention was for Utsch AG to dissociate from J.H. Tonnjes, the statements confirmed their five-year-old partnership in Utsch Tonnjes International.

In withholding that fact from the bidding committee, lowest bidder J.H. Tonnjes allegedly broke two rules on “fraudulent practices” and “collusive practices.” J.H. Tonnjes purportedly must be dumped, and the bidding deemed failed because of only one remaining participant.

The LTO is in a tizzy. The memo was signed merely by a “Concern Citizen” (sic), so possibly flimsy as basis to nullify the bidding. On the other hand, it was also an ungrammatical “Concern Citizen” memo that first exposed the original platemaking scam in 2014. In that deal the transport secretary had contracted a Dutch firm that hid its inexperience and undercapitalization. The Filipino partner also was banned from government contracting due to forgery.

One other issue in 2014 – fund sourcing – can void the re-bidding this 2017. The first contract, P3.8 billion for five years, had no multiyear obligational allotment, a requirement of the budget department for deals exceeding one year’s implementation. Moreover, the first P530-million release was merely taken from the P1.4-billion vehicle registration and driver’s licensing program, a separate LTO operation. There was no specific congressional allocation for the vehicle platemaking.

In withdrawing its defense of the past transport officials, the Sol-Gen manifested to the Supreme Court the contract illegality for lack of proper appropriation. The difference between vehicle registration/driver licensing and the platemaking were explained. Those were no mere play of words, the Sol-Gen proved.

In this 2017 bidding there is also no specific allocation for platemaking in the 2017 national budget. The P998,800,000 was merely taken from the P1.6 billion fund for – again – vehicle registration/driver’s licensing.

This fact was pointed up by a lawyer during the pre-bid conference last July. Still the LTO proceeded with the infirm funding.

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