THE open bidding for Cagayan de Oro City’s next garbage hauler will be held on Feb. 16 while more than 30 dump trucks employed by 10 contractors and City Hall continue to cover the backlog of garbage collection in the city.
“The open bidding will be held on Thursday by the bids and awards committee and we expect that it will be finished within the day. There will also be a post evaluation of the winning bidder to determine their capability and compliance to the checklist of requirements that we set for them,” said Engr. Armen Cuenca, chief of the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro).
In a phone interview, Engr. Cuenca said it may take three days for City Hall to officially declare the winning bidder while the notice of award to the company will be issued in a week.
“In the meantime, our office together with the City Engineering Office and 10 contractors along with Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy’s own trucks are servicing the garbage routes and so far we’ve not received any major complaints,” Cuenca said.
While the notice of award is being processed, Cuenca said the chosen contractor will start servicing the city’s garbage routes at no cost to City Hall.
“Mayor Klarex is updated on this matter (along with our garbage collection efforts). Mayor Klarex simply reminded us that the winning contractor should comply with the terms of reference that we provided for them,” Cuenca said in Visayan.
Aside from the City Engineering Office, the private contractors, and Mayor Uy’s own 30 dump trucks, Cuenca also said the city’s barangays have been mobilized to assist in their garbage collection efforts.
Among the requirements set by Clenro is that the contractor should have a minimum of 60 dump trucks of which 90 percent of these units should be brand new.
Cuenca also specified that while the contractor should collect a minimum of 33,000 cubic meters of garbage, they should also collect all remaining trash found on the city’s streets.
Mayor Uy earlier ruled out the possibility of City Hall assuming control of the city’s garbage collection saying the operational costs would be too prohibitive for the city to sustain on a regular basis. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
