Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman humbly told House of Representatives members that she would appreciate it if the controversial Procurement Service of the agency, or the PS-DBM, wasn't abolished and instead given another "chance".

Pangandaman attended the first day of the House deliberations on the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP) on Friday, Aug. 26 wherein she joined the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) panel.
During the interpellation of AAMBIS-OWWA Party-list Rep. Lex Anthony Colada, the solon asked Pangandaman about her stand on the proposal to abolish the PS-DBM.
The PS-DBM recently grabbed headlines for its supposed involvement in the procurement of outdated and overpriced laptops for public school teachers.
"I'm just curious. I won't talk about the budget," Colada, a minority bloc member, candidly said.
"Do you subscribe to the same persuasions, to the same motivations which moved the good senator from Ilocos Norte to come out with that proposal ?" he asked.
The DBM chief replied: "I will defer to the wisdom of the Congress if they really wish to abolish PS-DBM."
"But let me just say that during the time when I was with the Secretary Diokno in 2017 to 2019, one of the benefits of the PS- DSM, is actually the savings that the government incurred during the time, which is worth P18 billion," Pangandaman said.
"So I think if we give a chance to PS-DBM and if we clean the process and the system of the procurement of PS-DBM, maybe we can go back to its old glory," she said.
Pangandaman also gave her vote of confidence in the head of the service in lawyer Dennis Santiago.
"We appointed someone who is very respectable in the area, which is Atty. Dennis Santiago, so we already had we already have programs on how to fix PS-DBM. So if I may, if you'll be giving us a chance to at least clean PS-DBM we will highly be happy with that," she told the lawmakers.

The PS-DBM is mandated to operate a centralized procurement of common-use supplies and equipment (CSEs) for the whole of government.
These CSEs include items essential to the day-to-day operations of government agencies such as, but not limited to, ballpens, papers, staplers, paper clips, and folders.