Requesting Entity: PCARRD

Issues Concern: Provisions on Alternative Methods of Procurement

Details

Whether or not the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) may adopt Direct Contracting or Negotiated Procurement as an Alternative Method of Procurement in the procurement of Auditing Services for the Surveillance Audit of PCARRD’s Quality Management Systems (QMS) for purposes of its continued compliance with the requirement of ISO 9001:2000 standards

The general rule is that procuring entities shall adopt public bidding as the mode of procurement and shall see to it that the procurement program allows sufficient lead time for such public bidding. Alternative methods of procurement provided under Rule XVI of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations Part A (IRR-A) may be resorted to only in highly exceptional cases provided under the law.

A cursory reading of Section 50 of R.A. 9184 will reveal that Direct Contracting is a recourse available only in procurement of goods; more specifically, when any of the conditions enumerated in the same section in its IRR-A are present. In as much as the procurement of services for QMS certification is considered consulting services, Direct Contracting as an alternative method of procurement is not applicable.

With respect to the use of Negotiated Procurement, although it may be used for procurement of consulting services, Section 53 of the IRR-A provides specific cases when such method may be applied.

Considering that the circumstances present in the subject procurement do not fall squarely in any of the cases mentioned under the law (Section 53, IRR-A), Negotiated Procurement cannot be resorted to by your agency.

[W]e are of the opinion that neither Direct Contracting nor Negotiated Procurement may be used by PCARRD in procuring the services for its QMS certification; instead, the rules and procedures for Competitive Bidding should be complied with.