THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Tuesday that it approved the revised guidelines for the pilot run of an e-marketplace for government procurement.
In a statement, the DBM said Budget Secretary and Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Chairperson Amenah F. Pangandaman approved the GPPB resolution 06-2024 dated Oct. 4.
The resolution, known as “Approving the Proposed Guidelines for the Pilot Implementation of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System Electronic Marketplace,” streamlines the process for accredited suppliers selling goods or services to the government.
“The electronic marketplace… allows procuring entities… to search, view, compare, select, and procure goods and services from legally, technically, and financially capable merchants,” Genmarie S. Entredicho-Caong, executive director at the DBM’s Procurement Service (PS) told BusinessWorld via Viber.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. recently signed Republic Act 12009 or the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), which seeks to “modernize and enhance transparency, efficiency, and accountability across procurement processes.”
“The ‘add to cart’ feature in our government procurement systems is underway. With the release of the new guidelines, we are advancing to the trial phase of our e-marketplace,” Ms. Pangandaman said.
The DBM said the pilot phase will focus on common-use supplies and equipment (CSE), such as motor vehicles, airline tickets, cloud computing services, and software licenses.
“Each CSE will be thoroughly validated by the Procurement Service to ensure they meet technical standards and are ready for inclusion,” the DBM said.
Procuring entities (PEs) will be allowed to source CSEs from other suppliers under specific circumstances, such as unavailability or when other options are deemed more efficient, and practical, under the NGPA.
The DBM said that the e-marketplace will feature electronic signatures and payments and an automated system to handle the submission and processing of procurement requests, reducing paperwork and delays.
The PS will train users in all agencies on the effective use of the platform, it said.
The pilot test is subject to review by the GPPB for refinements before a wider rollout.
Ms. Caong said the feature allowing agencies “to view, compare, and select is what’s new, in comparison to the virtual store, where agencies can already procure CSE items online but on a per-item basis, with no options, as there is only one supplier per item.” — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante
