By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE Water Task Force’s installation of 7,000 water meters on Saipan — delayed by a year due to a procurement protest and appeal — may now be able to proceed.
Yesterday, Public Auditor Mike Sablan upheld the decision of Procurement and Supply Director Herman Sablan to deny Reaction Co.’s protest on the cancellation of the original invitation for bid 06-GOV-003 and the subsequent solicitation for the installation of the water meters through IFB 06-GOV-097.
If Reaction Co. does not file a request for reconsideration of OPA’s decision, then the procurement may continue.
Reaction Co., which had the lowest bid of some $700,000, wants to be awarded the contract under the original IFB, and asked the Office of the Public Auditor to cancel the second IFB, among other things, in an appeal filed on Dec. 28, 2006.
The public auditor, in an eight-page appeal decision, said the cancellation of the first IFB was allowable under CNMI Procurement Regulations, and that OPA finds no compelling reason to justify the cancellation of the second IFB.
“Reaction’s appeal, therefore, is denied,” said OPA’s Sablan.
Any interested party, however, may request reconsideration of a decision by the public auditor and such request must be received by OPA not later than 10 days after the date of the April 2 decision.
Noel M. Tolentino, general manager of Reaction Co., yesterday told Variety via telephone that they are still reviewing OPA’s appeal decision and have yet to decide whether to ask for a reconsideration of OPA’s appeal decision.
Reaction Co. was notified by the Water Task Force on March 20, 2006 that it would be awarded the contract. But the task force later asked for the cancellation of the original IFB, saying that it “no longer requires the services being procured.”
The Water Task Force also said that “continuing the metering of water service should be delayed until the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has registered and initiated billing of the meters recently installed by the task force, and identified and resolved any problems with the new type of meters used in the project.”
The Procurement and Supply Division granted the IFB cancellation request.
The public auditor said a cancellation of procurement after bid opening is a serious matter as bidders, with knowledge of the prior bids, could potentially have an unfair advantage if later permitted to compete again for the same procurement.
“Instances, however, do exist when cancellation is appropriate and allowable,” said OPA’s Sablan, when such action is determined in writing by the official with expenditure authority and approved by the director of the Procurement and Supply Division to be in the best interests of the government for any of a variety of reasons.
These reasons include inadequate or ambiguous specifications contained in the solicitation, goods or services being procured which are no longer required, and cancellation is determined to be in the best interests of the government.
“OPA finds that there was a written determination by the Water Task Force, which was approved by the director of Procurement and Supply, that the services under IFB 06-GOV-003 were no longer required and that cancellation of IFB-06-GOV-003 was in the best interests of the government,” said the public auditor.
He added that the subsequent solicitation for the installation of the 7,000 water meters was issued with several changes in place in the form of IFB 06-GOV-097.