NFA rebids 120,000 tons of rice imports

The National Food Authority will rebid as much as 120,000 metric tons of rice imports due to suspicious documents submitted by qualified bidders.

“The bids and awards committee reported that there are some documents submitted by post-qualified bidders that were found out to be suspicious. In order to not repeat the previous years’ folly, the agency deemed it best to rebid the volume,” NFA administrator Angelito Banayo told reporters late Tuesday.

The volume is part of the 600,000 MT of rice auctioned in March. The agency will release the final list of winning bidders this week.

“Close to 500,000 MT from the total 600,000 MT will be awarded not later than Friday. The bids and awards committee is planning to conduct the the rebidding by May, after the Lenten season is over,” said Banayo.

He said the final list included 11 companies and two cooperatives that were earlier awarded contracts to import 355,348 MT of rice.

The Philippines will import 860,000 MT of rice this year, with 660,000 MT bid out to the private sector and farmers’ groups in two separate tenders conducted last month and in the first week of April.

The balance of 200,000 MT has been obtained from Vietnam under an agreement between the two countries.

(Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideBusiness.htm?f=2011/april/14/business4.isx&d=2011/april/14)