House leaders believe that a simple dose of transparency will go a long way in solving the issues hounding the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe and Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo both think that the existence and purpose of the PS-DBM is good in that it helps other agencies on matters on procurement.
“As a concept, maganda sana siya. So ang problema, nagkakaroon ng mga hindi magagandang transaksyon (As a concept, it should be a good one. But the problem is, there have been bad transactions), Quimbo said during a recent news forum.
Quimbo, a senior vice chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations, was obviously alluding to the purchase of overpriced and outdated laptops for public school teachers that have been linked to PS-DBM.
"Ang sakin, simple solution: magkaroon ng simple transparency, kasi kung lahat ng ginagawa ng PS-DBM ng procedures (For me, there's a simple solution: there must be transparency on the procedures being done by PS-DBM)," she said.
"Halimbawa katulad namin dito sa sa Congress, nila-livestream, bakit hindi nila gawin yun? Bakit hindi nila i-avail ang makabagong teknolohiya para maging more transparent, more credible ang proseso? (For example, why can't they livestream the procedure like what we do here in Congress? Why don't they avail of new technology to make the process more transparent, more credible?)" Quimbo asked.
Dalipe concurred with the lady solon in that the PS-DBM can be very helpful to other departments if it can perform its mandate properly.
“Kasi yung purpose talaga niya (It's true purpose) is to help the different agencies and departments for procurement," Dalipe said during the same news forum.
"Especially, every year pupunta dito yung department , yung agency, ang unang tanong ng mga members, unang tanong ng mga congressman, 'Nagamit niyo ba yung pondo na in-allocate sa inyo?' 'Pag hindi, yun, mapapagalitan yung department head (every year the departments, the agencies come here, and the members' first question to them is, 'Were you able to use the funds that were allocated to you?' If not, the department head will get reprimanded).
"Because this is taxpayers’ money. Kailangan ma-utilize (It has to be utilized)," the majority leader explained.
"So I agree that the intent of PS-DBM is good. Pero kung mayroon man naging problema, siguro transparency lang para maiwasan na yung mga hindi natin gusto na mangyari (But if there had been problems, maybe we just need to exercise transparency to avoid the things that we don't want to happen )," he underscored.