THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has begun efforts to digitalize the government’s procurement process.
The DBM said the digitalization will start with the pilot testing of the revised Procurement Reports, considered as a milestone towards improved planning and monitoring by Procuring Entities.
This, Budget Secretary and concurrent Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) Chairperson Amenah F. Pangandaman said, is similar to the data-sharing agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that aimed to fix bottlenecks and address delays in procurement.
“The work we’ve done here today, in furtherance of the UN’s sustainable development goals, is also an affirmation of our commitment to improve the procurement process and pursue E-governance as we move closer to the finalization of the revised procurement reports. Our shared efforts signify our belief that the conduct of proper procurement should be guided by bureaucratic efficiency, transparency, and service to the people,” Pangandaman said.
Pangandaman described the automated procurement reports as a source of “clear and real-time picture of an institution’s procurement performance by generating diagnostics that will help it adjust and set priority action plans for improvement.”
GPPB-Technical Support Office Executive Director Rowena Candice M. Ruiz also underscored the integrity of procurement and competition in the market as two crucial areas to consider in government procurement.
“It’s very important for us, in understanding what we do in government, not only in open, transparent, and accountable public procurement, but also making sure that everything that we do, we look into how this would affect the integrity of procurement, competition in the market, which is very, very critical at this point in time as we all try to really rebound from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Ruiz.
Apart from the automated procurement reports, Secretary Pangandaman noted that the DBM is working toward the development and implementation of the Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS).
As a centralized database, the BTMS will facilitate the generation of vital information of government financial transactions; enable real-time mapping of transactions, from purchase to payment; and allow expedient and accurate financial management, improved data governance, and enhanced oversight control.
“The key objective of the BTMS,” Pangandaman said, “is to achieve the future state of Public Financial Management where all spending agencies would capture government transactions at source using the BTMS as the sole accounting and fiscal reporting system.” Cai U. Ordinario