By Darryl John Esguerra | Philippine News Agency
The newly-enacted government procurement law, which integrates technology and sustainable and modern techniques, is the “biggest anti-graft and corruption law in modern history,” Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Tuesday.
Speaking at the 2024 post-State of the Nation Address forum in Pasay City, Pangandaman underscored the key features of Republic Act (RA) 12009 or the New Government Procurement Act, which President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed into law on July 20.
“The New Government Procurement Act (NGPA) is the biggest anti-graft and corruption law in our modern history. So, we’re happy that the 20-year-old law is now amended and fully modernized – the process and the procurement system,” she said.
E-marketplace
Pangandaman highlighted one of the alternative modes of procurement, the creation of an “e-marketplace” similar to online shopping outlets like Lazada, Shopee, and Amazon.
With the platform, government agencies can place orders for common-use supplies and equipment (CSE) through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), greatly reducing turnaround time.
“We’ll make use of modern technology. For common-use supplies, we will use systems and applications similar to Lazada and Shopee. So, it will just be ‘add to cart’ because we know that a lot of common-use supplies are unavailable in our Procurement Service, in our warehouses. But now, it will be online,” Pangandaman said.
In May, the DBM said the e-marketplace was set to be launched by the end of July.
Pangandaman noted that the law permits early procurement activities, allowing government agencies to implement their projects as early as the start of the year.
She said through the NGPA, the procurement process will be more transparent by strengthening citizens’ participation.
This allows members of civil society to participate as observers in the process as well.
Affordable but quality purchase
Another provision of the law also seeks to prevent conflict of interest in the procurement process through disclosure of relations between the bidder and procuring heads of agencies.
The NGPA also determines the “most economically advantageous responsive bid” (MEARB), which runs in contrast with RA 9184’s “lowest calculated and responsive bid” that sometimes ends up with the government getting the cheapest items but with the lowest quality.
“We introduced a new or alternative mode of procurement. It’s not just the low cost, but we will also consider the quality of the goods and services that we need in the national government,” Pangandaman said.