Gov’t saves record P10.7B on improved procurement

The government saved P10.7 billion last year due to procurement reforms that also helped speed up the implementation of some major infrastructure projects, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

In a briefing, Diokno attributed the record savings to the upgrade of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) portal, a one-stop shop for procurement, linking government agencies to bidders.

Citing preliminary data from the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS), Diokno said last year’s savings—computed by comparing procurement cost with the approved budget for the contract—exceeded the P3.2 billion in 2017 and P3.7 billion in 2016.

The “open, competitive” bidding conducted through PhilGEPS allowed the government to award 446 contracts, up from 215 in 2017 and 331 in 2016, Diokno said.

The contracts awarded last year were for projects totaling P175.8 billion, higher than the P32.3 billion and P15.9 billion worth of projects in 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Diokno said contracts for big-ticket infrastructure such as the Light Rail Transit-1, Metro Rail Transit-3 rehabilitation, North-South Commuter Railway and Philippine National Railways South Long-Haul, were awarded by the DBM-PS last year.

“The improved procurement performance is a direct result of reforms, which seek to ensure faster, efficient and more responsive mechanisms for the acquisition of goods and services, introduced by the administration in the past two years,” Diokno said. —BEN O. DE VERA