The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said amending the decades-old Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) will help government agencies utilize their budget efficiently. In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the procurement process is the biggest bottleneck or hurdle in the budget utilization of government agencies. “That’s why I’m also pushing for amendments in our Procurement Law. It’s been there for the past 20 years, so some of the provisions need amendment. The law itself needs amendment, so we try getting World Bank and also ADB to help us on this,” Pangandaman said. To recall, Pangandaman met with World Bank officials in October last year to seek technical assistance for the study, plan, and implementation of reforms and amendments in the procurement law. These reforms, according to Pangandaman, include digitalization and the promotion of sustainable procurement through the Green Public Procurement (GPP) initiative. The DBM chief believes the present structure of the country’s procurement law is “too stringent.” She cited that even the use of digitalization and payment systems are not provided for in the law. “Maybe we need to put a provision on that and maybe green procurement. When we went to Japan, most of the investors want that their projects are with green specifications. So, we don’t have the specs yet on that,” Pangandaman said. “While GPPB (Government Procurement Policy Board) can release the guidelines on this, I think it’s better institutionalize it,” she added. Meanwhile, asked about the current status of the 2023 national budget, Pangandaman shared that most of the budget has already been released to agencies. “We have released most of the budget now so hopefully all the procurement procedures are now ongoing so they’ll be able to implement [their projects], especially in the infrastructure sector,” Pangandaman said.