The Procurement Service (PS), a self-sustaining government agency under the administrative supervision of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), recorded procurement savings amounting to PhP 18.3 billion in fiscal year 2018. The PS is the central procurement arm of the government for common use supplies and materials that are used by agencies in their day-to-day operations.
It also serves as a servicing agency/procurement agent of other government agencies for non-common goods, infrastructure projects, and consulting services. The PS is able to save the government billions of pesos through bulk procurement and market price monitoring and validation.
“We are proud to report that our procurement reforms are finally bearing fruit,” said Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno. In 2016, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) issued the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Government Procurement Reform Law (RA 9184). Meanwhile, implementation reforms like the upgrading of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), have enabled the government to more efficiently conduct its procurement activities.
A total of 463 procurement items for both common use and non-common use supplies, infrastructure projects, and consulting services were completed by the PS in 2018, amounting to PhP 198.8 billion.
Procurement savings, computed by comparing actual award costs with the approved budget for the contract (ABC) or project cost estimates for foreign-assisted projects, reached PhP 18.3 billion in 2018.
Of the total procurement savings, PhP 3.5 billion came from common use supplies and equipment. Office supplies and information technology (IT) software and licenses accounted for bulk of the procurement savings for common use supplies and equipment (refer to Table 2 for more details).
Meanwhile, another PhP 14.7 billion in procurement savings was recorded for non-common use items and equipment. The six big-ticket agencies in terms of value for non-common use supplies procurement (summarized in Table 3) are the Department of Transportation (DOTR), the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of National Defense (DND), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The distribution of procurement savings for non-common use items per agency is still being finalized by the Procurement Service.
“Moving forward, the DBM and PS will continue to ensure that our people get the most out of every peso that is entrusted to the government,” said the Budget Secretary. “More so, we will make public procurement supportive of the efficient and transparent implementation of projects,” concluded Secretary Diokno.
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PR No. 2019-20
