MANILA, Philippines - The tandem of Filipino-owned Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based GMR Airports is confident of bagging the P17.5 billion contract to expand the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
In a statement, Louie Ferrer, chief marketing officer of Megawide, said the group is optimistic that it won the bidding conducted by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) last December for the expansion of the country’s second largest international gateway.
“We participate in PPP projects because we believe in President Aquino’s Daang Matuwid system. We are a young company, idealistic, and we want to build a good brand for Megawide,” Ferrer said.
He pointed out that the tandem of Megawide and GMR Airports would be guided by President Aquino’s vision of integrity and world standards in its infrastructure projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) program.
Ferrer issued the statement after DOTC Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla confirmed that the agency’s bids and awards committee would finally issue a notice of award for the project before the end of the month.
The awarding of the project has been delayed due to the allegations made by the Filinvest Group on the conflict of interest committed by the Megawide-GMR Group in violation of the bidding rules.
Ferrer reiterated that the allegations of the Filinvest Group are baseless and far-fetched.
“All companies were pre-qualified based on strict guidelines set by the DOTC’s bid and awards committee. GMR-Megawide followed the process to the letter and passed all financial and operational criteria for the project,” he explained.
He added that the Megawide-GMR Group has already disclosed all relevant information to the DOTC pertaining to possible conflict of interest issues.
Contrary to allegations made during the Senate hearing on Tuesday, GMR Group maintains that it is in a financially healthy position and that the company makes operational and cash profits as it has done for the past six years.
Belying Filinvest’s claims, GMR stressed it is a BBB+ rated investment-grade company and they have never defaulted in any interest or debt payments throughout their history, and have raised more than $10 billion in debt for its various other projects.
“There is no ground for anyone to question GMR’s financial capability and we are confident that this is a non-issue with respect to the results of this bid,” Ferrer said.
The Megawide-GMR Group submitted the highest bid of P14.404 billion for the project last Dec. 12 followed by the Filinvest – CAI Consortium with P13.999 billion, and Premier Airport Group of SM Group of retail magnate Henry Sy with P12.5 billion.
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