GOVERNMENT offices’ purchase of common-use items will soon be as easy as using popular online shopping platforms, following the passage into law of the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.
At the post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) forum in Pasay City, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman described the NGPA as “the biggest anti-graft and corruption law in our modern history.”
On July 20, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. inked Republic Act 12009, which amended the 20-year-old Government Procurement Reform Act.
“So, we’re happy that the 20-year-old law is now amended and fully modernized – the process and the procurement system,” the Budget chief said.
Pangandaman, during the post-SONA discussions, said that among the new law’s salient features was the use of alternative modes of procurement such as the creation of an “e-marketplace” for government’s purchase of common-use supplies and equipment (CSE) through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
“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,” she said.
The e-marketplace is seen to transform the procurement of CSE by acting as the government’s main e-commerce platform.
The e-marketplace application will reduce the turnaround time to procure CSEs using technology.
Common-use items refer to equipment and office supplies used by government agencies for their day-to-day operations such as sheets of paper, computers, pens, pencils, staplers, folders, envelopes, among others.
Pangandaman earlier said that the DBM is “already finalizing the backend and the frontend” of the e-marketplace application.
During the forum, Pangandaman said that the NGPA allows early procurement activities, thus government agencies can implement their projects as early as the start of the year.
The Budget chief further said that through the NGPA, the procurement process will be more transparent by strengthening citizen’s participation.
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. This means that competent and credible suppliers can participate in the platform with ease as the e-marketplace has clear safeguards. (GMA Integrated News)
