Marcos wants safeguards in online gov't procurements

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has said safeguards should still be in place if the government wants to shift to online procurements.

“There will still be an element of accreditation because we cannot just open the market to anything…. (What if) you buy something, you get nothing. A box with nothing inside. ‘Yung ganoon,” Marcos said during a sectoral meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday.

“So, to safeguard against that, kailangan accredited ‘yung kausap natin,” he added.

Marcos also warned about the possibility of overpricing, which will be disadvantageous to those buying products and equipment through the digital platform.

During the meeting, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told Marcos that it is difficult to calculate product pricing because "if goods are quite heterogenous, not homogeneous, the price differences could also reflect quality differences."

“We know that… goods that might be overpriced. There are already some exploitation of market power by preventing competitors from coming in,” Balisacan said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has 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.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has disclosed the proposed amendments to Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act — 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. —VAL, GMA Integrated News