Bonifacio Global City, Philippines, 20 June 2025 – In a concerted effort to uphold transparency and accountability in government procurement, key national agencies and development partners convened at the World Bank Office in Bonifacio Global City for a technical workshop focused on the integration and effective use of Beneficial Ownership (BO) information in public procurement systems.
This workshop brought together representatives from the Government Procurement Policy Board – Technical Support Office (GPPB-TSO), Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Office, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), World Bank, Open Ownership, and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The workshop aimed to support the implementation of Sections 81 and 82 of Republic Act (RA) No. 12009, or the New Government Procurement Act, which mandates the disclosure of beneficial ownership information to promote integrity, competition, and transparency in the procurement process.
Through interactive plenary sessions and breakout group discussions, participants mapped out procurement processes, identified strategic entry points for BO data utilization, and examined mechanisms for inter-agency data exchange. The activity also enabled stakeholders to assess current data flow structures and outline operational recommendations for integrating BO data into procurement systems and procedures.
The outcome of the workshop marked a critical step toward the operationalization of the beneficial ownership disclosure and the establishment of a public beneficial ownership registry for government procurement, a key compliance mechanism under RA No. 12009. Participants expressed commitment to collaborate on refining procurement policies and digital systems to ensure that beneficial ownership information becomes an integral part of due diligence, supplier eligibility verification, and contract award decisions.
The activity concluded with a shared call to action: to build a more transparent, accountable, and corruption-resistant public procurement environment that deters fraudulent financial flows and strengthens public trust.