By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos, March 1, 2024; Philippine News Agency

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1219879

MANILA – Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has expressed appreciation for the agency’s purchasing arm, the Procurement Service (PS), for its digitalization efforts to ensure bureaucratic efficiency and improved service.

In her keynote speech during PS-DBM’s appreciation event for its client agencies at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on Thursday, Pangandaman lauded the digital transformation initiatives of the agency’s procurement arm, which includes the modernization of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS).

“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,” she said, as quoted by the DBM in a news release on Friday.

“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.”

Pangandaman acknowledged the importance of modernizing the PhilGEPS by having an electronic marketplace that will ensure the client agencies’ convenient procurement of Common-use Supplies and Equipment (CSE).

CSEs are items essential to the government’s daily operations. These include ball pens, papers, staplers, paper clips, and folders that are procured from the PS-DBM on a quarterly basis.

Pangandaman also thanked the PS-DBM, headed by its executive director Dennis Santiago, for advocating the Government Procurement Reform Act, which is nearing passage.

She said the proposed measure would help improve the country’s procurement system.

“All of these wins are anchored on President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s vision of a Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) where the government is truly responsive to the needs of the people, accountable to its constituents, and fulfills its promise of prosperity to everyone,” Pangandaman said.

During the event, Santiago presented the agency’s 12-Point Agenda, which aims to focus on the procurement of CSEs.

He said the agenda would pave the way for the study, review, and rationalization of CSEs.

The agenda also seeks to build up PS-DBM’s financial self-sufficiency and implement organizational restructuring of the procurement arm, including its human resource development and capacity building.

He said the PS-DBM also aims to advance market-strengthening strategies and alliance-building; push for the institutionalization of Framework Agreement and Indefinite Delivery and Indefinite Quantity contractual arrangements to simplify CSE procurement; and take advantage of the benefits of economies of scale through bulk purchasing.

“We do what we can to ensure integrity, transparency, and accountability in the performance of our duties. Ang tiwalang ipinagkaloob po ninyo ang nagsisilbing inspirasyon upang mas pag-ibayuhin at paigtingin ang pagtupad sa aming sinumpaang tungkulin (Your trust in us serves as an inspiration for us to improve and intensify our efforts to fulfill our mandate),” Santiago said.

The appreciation event was the PS-DBM’s first engagement catered to commemorate the decades-long commitment of its client agencies to accountable, transparent, and efficient procurement.

The awardees included officials and key representatives of the DBM; Government Procurement Policy – Technical Support Office; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; Department of Health (DOH); Department of Foreign Affairs; Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Department of Education; Home Development Mutual Fund; Games and Amusement Board; Philippine National Police; Supreme Court of the Philippines; Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority; Clark Development Corp.; and the National Youth Commission.

Other awardees were DOH 10 (Northern Mindanao); Department of Information and Communications Technology 7 (Central Visayas); Quezon City government; University of the Philippines (UP) Manila; UP Diliman; UP Los Baños; Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Municipality of Naic, Cavite; 114th Contracting Office for Infrastructure, Armed Forces of the Philippines Procurement Service; City of Himamaylan, Negros Occidental; and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. (PNA)