October 15, 2022 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank will provide technical assistance to the Philippines as the government moves to reform the country’s procurement laws amid controversies hounding the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
On the sidelines of the 2022 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, Budget chief Amenah Pangandaman met with officials of the Washington-based multilateral lender to collaborate and implement reforms on the nearly two-decades-old Government Procurement Reform Act.
Pangandaman said the World Bank has committed to provide technical assistance to the DBM to efficiently study, plan and implement reforms and amendments in the procurement law.
As DBM chief, Pangandaman is pushing to maximize the use of digitalization to ensure transparency and generate savings in the public procurement process.
“The law was passed in 2003, the timing is ripe to introduce further reforms and review the government procurement process,” she said.
“We are advocating this to promote efficiency and sustainability in our public procurement process, as well as to further professionalize our procurement practitioners,” Pangandaman said.
World Bank country director Ndiame Diop said the multilateral lender is pleased to support the Philippines in terms of technical assistance.
A World Bank study showed that the Philippines can save almost 30 percent of its total procurement cost, should reforms in the procurement law be implemented.
The PS-DBM continues to be in hot water over controversies in its procurement since last year, which prompted lawmakers to call for its abolition.
Repeated transactions of PS-DBM are being flagged by the Commission on Audit as it has become “a breeding ground for graft, corruption, inefficiency, and negligence of the duties of other government agencies.”
At the height of the pandemic last year, PS-DBM was involved in the overpriced medical supplies procured by the Department of Health.
Now, the PS-DBM is facing yet another controversy for the procurement of 39,583 “pricey” laptops worth P2.4 billion supposedly for public school teachers.
As of now, the PS-DBM operates a centralized procurement system for common use office supplies and equipment for several agencies and offices of the government.
Aside from the reforms in government procurement, the World Bank and DBM also discussed other areas for cooperation such as the rightsizing program, cash-based budgeting system, green procurement and the budget treasury management system
