Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said he is confident that the ongoing efforts of the Senate to amend the two decades-old Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) will result to greater implementation of major government projects, acquisition of goods and supplies and reducing, if not eliminating avenues for corruption. 

Should Senate Bill No. 2593, or the bill amending the GPRA or Republic Act No. 9184, is passed into law, Angara said it will also plug the loopholes in government procurement and put a stop to the wastage of public funds as it aims to streamline the state’s procurement power and make it more effective.

“R.A. 9184, authored by my father, the late Senate President Edgardo Angara, was a landmark piece of legislation— recognized and lauded globally, including the World Bank,” Angara said in his sponsorship speech on SB No. 2593 on Monday night, March 11.

“While it was able to institute key reforms in the government procurement process, over time individuals with evil intent have managed to find loopholes to exploit, costing the public billions that could have been spent on more productive endeavors,” the Senate Committee on Finance chief said.

Senate Bill No. 2593 is one of the priority measures identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). The bill will now be up for plenary debates.

While the wastage of public funds is not entirely due to corruption, Angara said this could also be due to inefficiencies of the government entities and the procurement process as a whole. 

“We have seen agencies whose procurement of basic supplies take an inordinate amount of time to complete. There is a lack of true competition among bidders and oftentimes agencies are unable to undertake the procurement of goods due to poor planning or they are tied up by the procedures under the law,” Angara noted. 

The senator noted that a 2019 World Bank study of Philippine procurement data found that the government could have saved up to 29 percent if it were to employ better procurement strategies and policies. 

The amount could have totaled to about P1.2-trillion, considering the years covered by the study which is from 2014 to 2018. 

According to Angara, the current administration is well aware of the problems with public procurement and President Marcos himself has highlighted the importance of pursuing further reforms in the GPRA.

In his last State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President said that such amendments are needed to make public procurement more attuned to the changing times, in a bid for government  “not only to become more effective, but more, to become truly transformative.”

Among the amendments being pursued in the current review of the GPRA is the introduction of the Most Economically Advantageous Responsive Bid (MEARB) to address issues encountered regarding award criterion under the procurement law of the Lowest Calculated Bid or simply put, awarding the contract to the least expensive bid. 

With the MEARB, Angara said the awarding of bids will factor in quality along  with cost. 

Under the bill, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would be tasked to create procurement positions for the different government agencies to ensure the professionalization of government procurement practitioners, who will have the qualifications needed to effectively fulfill their mandates.

The bill also paves the way for domestic preference in the supply of goods and services to broaden the government’s options in sourcing their requirements,  and also help domestic industries grow and become more competitive.

“Inaasahan naming na ang pagsasabatas ng reporma sa GPRA ay hindi lamang bibilis ang procurement ng gobyerno, ito’y magiging mas epektibo din (We expect that the enactment of GPRA reform will not only speed up government procurement, it will also be more effective),” Angara said.

“At sa ganitong paraan, iigting ang kapasidad ng gobyerno para tugunan ang pangangailangan ng sambayanang Pilipino. At kapag lalong gumanda at bumilis ang pag-responde, mas lalalim ang tiwala at panatag ng loob ng taong bayan sa ating gobyerno (And in this way, the capacity of the government to meet the needs of the Filipino people will be strengthened. And when the response gets better and faster, the trust and confidence of the people in our government will deepen),” he stressed.