Meeting of the Philippine Development Forum Sub-Working Group on Procurement
Thursday, October 29, 2009
by : Information and Management Group
Last 23 October 2009, the Philippine Development Forum (PDF) Sub-Working Group on Procurement met at Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila.
The sub-group discussed the status of the Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR) Action Plan, specifically, the following matters presented by Atty. Ruby U. Alvarez, Executive Director of the Government Procurement Policy Board – Technical Support Office:
1. Improvement in procurement procedures;
2. Strengthening of monitoring mechanisms;
3. Strengthening of procurement capacity; and
4. Use of Country Systems Pilot Program
The first topic centered on the issuance of the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 which now covers both local and foreign funded projects. The next topic focused on the status of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), particularly, the expected development of Phases 2 to 5 by 2011. The third topic was highlighted by updates on the culmination of the training of the pilot batch on Professionalization of Procurement Practitioners using the modules developed by the Asian Institute of Management. The fourth topic covered the validation conducted by the World Bank on the CPAR scores of the Philippines in line with the Use of Country System Pilot Program.
After the updates, the sub-group discussed the next steps and activities. Among those considered were conduct of training on the revised IRR, approval of the modules on Professionalization and establishment of a career stream for procurement practitioners, update/development of procurement capacity assessment tool, development of database for procurement fraud-related cases, harmonization of the Philippine Bidding Documents and Generic Procurement Manuals with development partners’ rules, and assistance on the development of list of countries granting reciprocal rights to Filipino bidders and the validation of the process in issuing official English translations of documents for bidding.
The sub-group also tackled the unharmonized provisions of the PBDs and agreed to meet in small groups divided per category of procurement (goods, infrastructure projects, and consulting services) to discuss the identified unharmionized provisions.
The meeting was opened by Atty. Cecille D. Vales of the World Bank and was closed by Ms. Claudia Buentjen of the Asian Development Bank. Participants were representatives from various agencies of the Government, Development Partners, and Private Sector and Civil Society Organizations.
