Requesting Entity: People’s Credit and Finance Corporation

Issues Concern: Applicability of R.A. 9184 to Beneficiaries of the People’s Development Trust Fund

Details

Whether or not R.A. 9184 applies to procurement activities undertaken by grant recipients or beneficiaries of the People’s Development Trust Fund (PDTF).

R.A. 9184 governs the disbursement of public funds and the PDTF, which is sourced from PAGCOR funds and Congressional appropriations, is certainly public in character.

However, R.A. 9184 only applies to any branch, department, office, agency, or instrumentality of government. Under Section 11 of R.A. 8425, the PDTF may be availed of by either public or private entities. Applicability of R.A. 9184 shall thus depend on whether the grant beneficiary is a government agency or not.

If, for instance, a procurement activity is being undertaken by a local government as a grant recipient of the PDTF, then R.A. 9184 should be applied. On the other hand, if the grant recipient is a non-governmental organization involved in micro financing, then R.A. 9184 need not be applied.

At this point, however, it bears stressing that although a non-government micro-financing institutions, who are grant recipients of the PDTF, are not covered by R.A. 9184, they are highly encouraged to use transparent and competitive procurement procedures such as those prescribed by R.A. 9184.