Reason for Preliminary Judgment Error Changes to Manual Bid Opening... Top-Ranked Company Contract Canceled
The Company Says, "Cancel Manual Bid Opening and Select Us as the Original Successful Bidder"
Boryeong City in South Chungcheong Province is facing strong backlash from a contractor after canceling a successful bid for an emergency water supply leakage repair project due to an administrative error by the responsible public official.
According to coverage by Asia Economy on the 25th, the city announced an electronic bidding for a private contract for emergency water supply leakage repair in Boryeong from the 6th to the 11th, dividing the project into three zones, with an estimated budget of 100 million won per zone and a total project cost of 300 million won.
This project aims to promptly restore water supply in the event of sudden leaks in the water supply districts of towns, townships, and neighborhoods within Boryeong City.
Company A submitted bids of approximately 87 million won each for zones 1 and 2, and was selected as the top candidate for both zones.
However, due to an administrative mistake in which the responsible official classified Company B, which had submitted the required documents in advance, as a company that had not submitted documents, the city canceled the electronic bidding and, citing a pre-judgment error, switched to a manual opening of bids, thereby canceling Company A's status as the top candidate.
It is known that Company B is operated by the family of a city hall official. Although this company did not win the bid in the manual opening either, suspicions have been raised that the city switched to manual opening to give Company B another chance to participate in the bidding.
In particular, it has been pointed out that changing to manual opening due to an administrative mistake by a public official, rather than a system error, is highly unusual.
In a phone interview with a reporter, a representative of Company A said, "We were notified by the city that we had won the bid and were just waiting for the contract to be finalized, but within a day, without any notification, the process was changed to manual opening. Since a public official's family is running a water supply agency, they must have quickly realized something was wrong. I wonder if this company went through the proper procedures to file a formal objection."
The representative continued, "When the manual opening was conducted, we confirmed which numbers would be accepted or rejected. Conducting a manual opening is unreasonable, so it should be canceled and restored to the original state, and we should be selected as the successful bidder."
He further emphasized, "The water supply division arbitrarily set the opening for 3 p.m. on the 19th, and although we raised objections both verbally and in writing, they ignored them and proceeded with the manual opening. We received a text message at 2:34 p.m., just before the opening at 3 p.m., with no prior notice. This has eroded our trust in the administration. It seems they sent the text at 2:34 p.m. just as a formality before the 3 p.m. opening."
He added, "Since I raised an objection, I thought it would be a big problem if the public official's family company won, so I believe they made sure that company did not win either."
A city official stated, "The responsible official failed to recognize that a company had submitted the required documents in advance and classified it as a non-submitting company, leading to a pre-judgment error and the switch to manual opening. It is true that the company in question is operated by a public official's family."
The official added, "There was a similar case in the Q&A section of the Public Procurement Service website, so we switched to manual opening. We also communicated with a PPS employee by phone, but there was no clear answer as to whether it was allowed or not."
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