DBM’s procurement process amendments: e-marketplace, removal of bidding for smaller items

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday unveiled its proposals to amend the government procurement process, allowing agencies to acquire select goods and services directly from suppliers even without competitive public bidding.

At a press briefing, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the proposed amendments to Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act into divided into six items — innovative procurement methods, efficiency in the process, procurement planning and budgeting, digitalization and innovation, green procurement, and miscellaneous provisions.

Among the proposed amendments is the establishment of an e-marketplace similar to the prevailing online shopping applications, where government agencies will be able to procure goods and services from qualified merchants.

The DBM is also proposing the implementation of the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) which the government currently uses only for the procurement of services.

“Lagi hong nababanggit sa (It is always mentioned in the) Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid, dun daw tayo palagi sa (we always go for the) lowest, sa cheap, pinakamura pero hindi naman maganda (but not nice), so we are looking at an area wherein we can advance this and improve the evaluation methodology,” DBM Undersecretary Dennis Santiago said.

“Now we will apply it to goods and even infra where we make use of percentages. There’s a certain percentage sa (for the) technical aspect, there’s a certain percentage on the financial aspect, and you put them together, you have the highest-rated bid, the most economically advantageous tender,” he added.

Aside from this, Santiago said other proposed amendments include the removal of the bidding process for small items, as government agencies can directly procure from merchants provided that they are found legally, technically, and financially compliant.

“This will put forth efficiency because ‘yung mga bagay bagay na dapat sina-submit for for competitive bidding ay hindi na po gagawin ‘yun, bagkus gagawa ang procuring entity ng sariling technical requirements and then approach the appropriate market operator to provide the goods,” he said.

(This will put forth efficiency because the things that should be submitted for competitive bidding will no longer be done, and instead, the procuring entity will provide its own technical requirements and then approach the appropriate market operator to provide the goods).

Sought for more details on the threshold, Santiago said that the DBM is looking at P250,000 as the minimum amount for goods and services that no longer require competitive bidding, but this will still be up to Congress.

The proposed amendments were presented to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who called for a New Government Procurement Law during his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month.

“Our President agreed with our amendments, except for may mga ilang items lang po because kailangan po natin intindihin, nanggaling din po sa, nag-local government unit po siya, so naintindihan niya ‘yung proseso ng procurement so he was able to explain ano ‘yung mga areas nahihirapan ‘yung mga katulad ng LGUs at tsaka ‘yung mga tao sa gobyerno when they procure,” Pangandaman said.

(Our President agreed with our amendments, except for a number of items because we need to understand that he also came from the local government unit and he understands the procurement process so he was able to explain what areas LGUs were finding difficulties.)

“We’ll have to write the specific amendments per provision, just maybe give us two weeks. Kailangan po ng technical writing don,” she added. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News