Voluntary suspension of Trainings during Election period.

The decision of whether to suspend or continue with the conduct of GPRA trainings during the election period is left at the discretion of the Composite Team and SUCs trainors.

In a Memorandum dated 21 February 2007, the Executive Director conveyed to the trainors the policy of the GPPB to "allow the voluntary suspension of trainings during election period, if said trainings will be used as venues for holding of political caucuses, meetings, rallies in support of or against any electoral candidate". The suspension, if the trainors so decide shall cover the period from March 30, 2007 to may 15, 2007. On the other hand, trainors in the region who opt to continue with their scheduled trainings should take additional safeguards in order that they may not be accused of engaging in any form of partisan political activity.

In the region, there are three groups of trainors accredited by the GPPB: the Regional Composite Team composed of DILG, DBM, COA and PHILLBO which caters to LGUs, and WVSU and UP Visayas which are assigned to train NGA and GOCCs procurement officials. As early as October last year, the trainors commenced the series of trainings on the roll-out of the Generic Procurement Manuals and Updates on GPRA Issuances. In as far as the Composite Team is concerned the trainings are scheduled every Thursday and Friday in Punta Villa Resort, Iloilo City.

Procurement of Second-hand vehicles allowed by GPRA.

The Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) has recently issued an opinion declaring that the procurement of second hand or reconditioned motor vehicle is not prohibited by R.A. No. 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act(GPRA).

In a letter dated 15 December 2006, GPPB Executive Director Ruby U. Alvarez opined that "procurement of second-hand vehicles is not prohibited by R.A. 9184. It is the procurement of second-hand vehicle through an auction that is prohibited by R.A. 9184." The same opinion is reiterated under GPPB's Non-Policy Matter Opinion No. 33-2006 dated 27 December 2006.

Said opinion further states that procurement of second-hand vehicle must follow the procedures prescribed in the GPRA and its IRR-A.

Procurement Updates for Barangays resumes.

The Regional Composite Trainors Team will resume the conduct of seminar updates on procurement rules for barangays on the following dates:

January 25-26, 2007
February 8-9, 2007
February 15-16, 2007
February 22-23, 2007

Invited participants are Punong Barangays, Chairmen and Secretariats of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of barangays in the Province of Iloilo. This seminar-updates started in December 2006, and so far only about 250 barangays were covered for a total of 893 trainess. Venue of the seminar is at Punta Villa Resort, Iloilo City.

GPRA Update: Procurement in case of natural or man-made calamity.

The GPPB has issued on December 6, 2006 Circular Letter No. 03-2006, clarifying the procurement process to be undertaken in case of the occurrence of natural or man-made calamities.

The circular reiterated the provision of Section 54.2(b) of RA 9184 and its IRR-A that the negotiated procurement is the appropriate alternative mode in case of calamity to undertake the necessary procurement to prevent damage to or loss of life or property, or restore vital public services, infra facilities and other public utilities.

What should be done. The procuring entity will simply have to negotiate with a previous supplier, contractor or consultant (depending on the item/project to be negotiated upon) in good standing who is situated within the vicinity where the calamity or emergency occurred. Please take note. The negotiation shall be with a single supplier, contractor or consultant instead of three.

Who are considered supplier, contractor, or consultant in good standing? The circular defines the term in good standing if the concerned supplier, contractor or consultant has not committed any breach of contract like short deliveries, unreasonable delays in delivery of goods or project implementation, delivery or completion of of defective goods or civil works; no negative slippage - in any previous transactions with the procuring entity or any other government entity.

Notwithstanding the simplicity of the procurement process in this case, the procuring entity is still required to post the award of contract in the GEPS, its own website and in its bulletin board.

Professionalizing Public Procurement practitioners.

The World Bank has extended to the Philippines government a new IDF grant (Institutional Development Fund) of US $ 300 T to support government's effort to establish a career path and certification program for public procurement practitioners.

The grant is given by World Bank in recognition of the Philippines concerted efforts in improving public procurement. It underscored such procurement milestones as the enactment and implementation of the GPRA (RA 9184); formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR-A); establishment and operationalization of the GPPB; mandatory use of Electronic Procurement System; issuance of standard bidding document and forms; and more recently, the roll-out of the Generic Procurement Manuals.

The project to be financed by the grant will consist of two (2) parts: to provide technical assistance to the government in creating the career stream for public procurement practitioners; and support the development and roll-out of a complete public procurement and logistics training modules and certification program.

The project will be implemented by the GPPB and its Technical Support Office.

Reaching out to the Barangays.

After having completed the roll-out of the Generic Procurement Manuals to provinces, cities and municipalities in Region VI, the Training Team will start reaching out to the barangays. Unlike the previously concluded trainings, the module for the barangays will be a little bit simpler and the duration shortened.

The Team will concentrate on updating the procurement officials of barangays on the latest resolutions and policies issued by the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB), particularly along alternative modes of procurement, small value procurement, and procurement by administration and pakyaw system.

As we have done in the past, trainings for barangays are carried out by batches, considering that there are 4,046 of them in the region. The first 3 batches are scheduled on December 12-13; 14-15; and 19-20. These will cover only the barangays in the city and some from the province of Iloilo. The subsequent seminars will be held starting January 2007.

Mission accomplished!

This took too long to post but as the saying goes, "Better late than never". The Team has completed the last batch of the training on the roll-out of the Generic Procurement Manuals. We arranged with Punta Villa a single venue as the confirmed participants were just a little over 150 but the actual registrants (most of them came later) turned out to be 230 plus. So we had to to split the participants into two groups with those coming from Antique in one group, and the other from Negros Occidental and the local water districts.

What made this last batch special was the presence of two personnel from the GPPB Tecnical Support Office who came to observe and distributed survey questionnaires about how we conduct the training. I'll make a summary of the participant's impression in a separate post later.

With the provinces, cities and municipalities and some local water districts done, we are setting our sight next on the barangays whom we feel equally need the training. We have already sent out the invitations to barangays in Iloilo City and those in Province of Iloilo. Target date is December 12-13 and 14-15.