Keynote Speech
byHon. Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management Benjamin E. Diokno
(2nd Annual Workshop with Merchants, 26 August 2016, TheBayleafIntramuros, Manila)
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning!
I would like to congratulate the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service for this helpful initiative to continue the PS-PhilGEPS annual workshop with merchants. Such workshop benefits merchants, old and new, to be informed and updated on the policies and procedures, and business opportunities in the PS-PhilGEPS.
We are conducting this annual merchant workshop in order to promote transparency by giving the forecasted quantity, technical specifications, and other terms and conditions for the procurement of common-use office supplies and equipment for the next year. This workshop helps level the playing field to all suppliers who are interested to do business with the government.
This exercise will also ensure that our merchants are fully compliant with the implementing rules and regulations governing the Government Procurement Reform Act, which would save them the hassle and trouble of the consequences from non-compliance.
Both the government and the merchants have benefitted from the Government Procurement Reform Act. The benefits to the government are the following:
-Improved transparency in government procurement;
-Enhanced competition and realization of values for money in procurement;
-Improved administrative efficiencies;
-Reduction on procurement cost, including newspaper advertisements; and
-Provision of audit trails through information posted in the system.
PS-PhilGEPS serves as a medium in the implementation of government procurement policies, transparency and good governance measures. The expansive database of information in the PhilGEPS has aided government agencies in procurement planning and monitoring.
In fact, because of bulk procurement, the total aggregated savings in average is 45.3% based on the data of “Amazing Savings”.
Now, as for the suppliers and contractors doing business with government, they derive the following benefits for using the system:
First, access to government bid opportunities 24/7; second, downloading of electronic bid documents; third automatic notification through the user’s e-mail of bid postings and supplements; and fourth, savings on newspaper costs, transportation and manhours.
I would like to acknowledge that there has been a 7.7% increase in the number of bidders participating in PS-PhilGEPS procurement. From 153 bidders in 2014 to 165 in 2015. Meanwhile, for the first half of 2016, a total of 52 new bidders have joined PS-PhilGEPS procurement.
As of August 19, 2016, the total number of opportunities posted in the PhilGEPS website is 366,546. These are admittedly modest gains but we should strive to do better.
The Duterte Administration, aside from its bold and relentless drive against crime and illegal drugs, emphasizes its support for genuine transparency in government. Barely a month in his presidency, President Rodrigo RoaDuterte issued an executive order for the Freedom of Information mandating full public disclosure of all offices in the executive branch.
The modernization of PhilGEPS is a response to ensure transparency in government procurement transactions. The people’s tax must be used wisely to ensure better public services, from buying goods and services that work as they are supposed to, to achieving savings that can be ploughed back into public services.
For calendar year 2017, the PS-PhilGEPS will add services as part of its common-use supplies and equipment such as cloud services, meaning cloud storage, back-up and disaster recovery; scanning services, a process of digitizing documents; and anti-virus software licenses.
The whole day I will leave you to speakers in this workshop who will elaborate on what merchants and would-be merchants can expect from PS-PhilGEPS in 2017, especially now that it is moving towards compliance to green public procurement. I hope that we will be instruments to bring real change in delivering public services. Together, let us be partners for change!
Maramingsalamatpo!