Members of the Government Procurement Policy Board, colleagues from the Department of Budget and Management, Presidents and representatives of our partner State Universities and Colleges, GPPB-TSO Executive Director Rowena Candice Ruiz, Procurement Service Executive Director Dennis Santiago; other officials of the GPPB-TSO, our development partners, and all of you here present today: good morning, and welcome to the fourth Annual Procurement Summit!
Before we begin, thank you for attending this event and for your sustained support and efforts for a better procurement regime.
If you can recall, the Procurement Summit started in 2017 and was conducted yearly until 2019. But unfortunately, because of the pandemic, its conduct was deferred in 2020 and 2021. So this 2022 Summit is a milestone in the Philippine government procurement system as we reinstate its conduct.
As a background, the DBM supports the Marcos Jr. Administration’s goal of ensuring sustainable management and use of natural resources by 2030. As such, the Government Procurement Policy Board will spearhead the implementation of the Green Public Procurement or the GPP Roadmap.
The GPP Roadmap aims to integrate green choices in public procurement and put the government closer to its ultimate goal of ensuring sustainable management and use of natural resources by 2030.
A GPP Manual is currently being crafted to guide procurement practitioners in embedding green specifications. We have several Common-use Supplies and Equipment or CSE items with green specifications. Further, there has also been an increase in government agencies adopting green specifications in non-CSE items, from 26% in 2018 to 58% in 2020.
This aims to radically transform the Philippine market in public procurement and with the long-term perspective of achieving a sustainable public procurement initiative.
This is the inspiration of this year’s Procurement Summit: “Building Strong Supplier Relationships towards Innovative and Sustainable Public Procurement.” The Summit theme intends to highlight the partnership and trust between and among procurement stakeholders from the government and the private sector. In particular, we hope to encourage new business models that offer innovative and resource-efficient solutions that promote purchase of green market products and services.
According to Philippine Government Procurement System or PhilGEPS data,[1] as we transitioned to an agile procurement regime because of COVID-19 in 2021, the Philippine government procurement continued to be robust despite the pandemic. This is because we adjusted our policies to fit the changing landscape and address the emerging needs.
Today, while we ease into the post-pandemic world, it remains essential to continue to educate our procurement practitioners and stakeholders on various innovations and initiatives in public procurement due to our commitment to efficiency and sustainability given the large volume of procurement programs and projects.
Hence, this Summit hopes to stress the importance of exploring innovative and sustainable products and services as the government upscales its business processes with an emphasis on protecting the environment.
As such, this Summit features technical sessions on innovative and sustainable public procurement and above all, an exhibit that showcases various products and services offered by various suppliers and knowledge sharing sessions—with a hope to instill green practices not just in our procurement systems, but also business operations and even in our daily lives.
In addition, the DBM also supports the Administration’s thrust for a lean, efficient, and responsive government workforce.
In fact, the FY 2023 Proposed National Budget will facilitate the transformation and digitalization of the government to streamline the bureaucracy. We will pursue investments in information and communications technology to transform and digitalize government processes, records, and databases through e-governance.
Digitalization and sustainability are great priorities of this Administration so I hope that in line with these objectives, everyone can take valuable lessons from the Summit.
I also invite everyone to visit the Market Opportunities Exhibits which we will formally open later after the plenary discussions. Several suppliers were invited to showcase their products to help procuring entities prepare for our future procurement projects, especially in crafting specifications based on the innovative and sustainable products and services that are available in the market.
And so, I urge everyone to pass on your learnings from this Summit and be champions of innovative and green public procurement. By working together with our partners from the private sector, we can take the Philippine government procurement regime to the next level. Let today be a stone cast in the water that creates many ripples of innovation and sustainability.
My thanks to everyone here today.
Assalamu Alaikum and Mabuhay!
[1]as of 31 December, 2021, we have 62% or 1.440 trillion of all bid opportunities covering infrastructure projects, while 37% or PhP860 billion covers goods and services, and 1% or PhP25 billion projects on consulting services. Amounting to a total of 2.326 trillion government bid opportunities were opened to eligible suppliers, contractors and consultants.
