My warmest greetings to our colleagues and fellow public servants from various government agencies.
Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
I am honored and delighted to join the Procurement Service– Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) as it celebrates yet another milestone event for its stakeholders. On behalf of PS-DBM, led by Executive Director Atty. Dennis Santiago, allow me to extend our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to our dear client agencies, for your steadfast support and continued preference for PS-DBM as your trusted procurement partner.
This event’s theme, “ONE in Procurement and Service 2024: Transformative Public Service in the Digital Age,” speaks volumes about PS-DBM’s commitment to achieving the government’s Agenda for Prosperity, leveraging digitalization towards bureaucratic efficiency and improved public service delivery. As a testament to this, we are getting closer and closer to having a new and stronger Government Procurement Reform Act—one that is more attuned to the changing times and responsive to the evolving needs of our people. Just yesterday, we attended the third and last hearing for the new GRPA. I thank Executive Director Atty. Dennis Santiago for his invaluable support in advocating this vital legislation that will propel our procurement systems to the future–and of course, the PS-DBM family who are helping us make this happen.
The modernization of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System or PhilGEPS, for instance, is a truly significant step towards ensuring efficiency, transparency, and world-class quality in public procurement. We will even have an eMarketplace similar Shopee and Lazada, enabling our client agencies to purchase Common-use Supplies and Equipment or CSE in the comfort of their own offices and workstations. We will likewise expand the eMarketplace to include non-common-use supplies such as government vehicles—truly taking the Philippine procurement system to the next level!
And towards sustainability, we will also implement a Green Public Procurement Strategy to reduce the environmental impact of our procured goods and infrastructure projects.
If you will also recall, we signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Landbank of the Philippines in August last year to commence the Government Purchase Card (GPC) Program. The GPC is a credit card that will serve as an alternative payment solution for the procurement of goods and services by national government agencies, further streamlining and expediting the procurement process by eliminating procurement lead time, among others. This will be discussed in detail by our speaker from Landbank.
All of these wins are anchored on President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s vision of a Bagong Pilipinas where the government is truly responsive to the needs of the people; accountable to its constituents; and fulfills its promise of prosperity to everyone. And we begin by reforming and digitalizing our procurement system so that the Filipino people will get the service that they desire and deserve.
Congratulations to PS-DBM and our beloved client agencies on the success of this event. United as One in Procurement and Service, may we never cease to work passionately in closing the gap between the government and the people we serve.
Maraming salamat po at mabuhay po kayong lahat!
Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.
