Requesting Entity: Technical Education and Skills Development Authority

Issues Concern: Procurement of Printing Services

Details

1. Whether printing services classified as goods under Section 5 (k) of the IRR-A of R.A. 9184.

We believe that, based on the enumeration of what constitutes “related” or “analogous services”, printing services should be considered as goods. Applying the well-established principle of ejusdem generis, where a general word or phrase follows an enumeration of particular and specific words of the same class, the general word or phrase is to be construed to include persons, things, or cases akin to those specifically mentioned (Statutory Construction by Ruben Agpalo – Fifth Edition 2003, Vera vs. Cuevas, 90 SCRA 379, 31 May 1979).

2. Whether a procuring entity can acquire printing services through shopping if it is below the required limit or ceiling.

[I]t bears stressing that under Section 52 (b) of IRR-A, shopping may be resorted only if procuring entities will be acquiring readily available off-the-shelf goods or ordinary/regular office supplies and/or equipment.

As clarified under GPPB Resolution No. 12-2006 dated 14 June 2006, ordinary or regular office supplies, in the context of Section 52 (b) of the IRR-A, refer to supplies, commodities or materials which, depending on the procuring entity’s mandate and nature of operations, are necessary in the transaction of its official businesses; and consumed in the day-to-day operations of said procuring entity. However, in the same resolution, GPPB specifically excluded from the meaning of ordinary or regular office supplies, services such as repair and maintenance of equipment and furniture, as well as trucking, hauling, janitorial, security, and related or analogous services.