Procurement manual for LGUs in the works.

The GPPB will hold a consultation with selected LGUs as part of the preparation for the development of a procurement manual for LGUs. The consultation will be held on July 5th at Iloilo Grand Hotel. A total of 40 participants will be invited coming from Region VI and VII. Preferred participants are those coming from 1st class, 4th and 5th class provinces and municipalities including component cities who are either BAC members, BAC Secretariat or TWG. Invitations will be sent out by the respective DBM Regional Offices.

Use of PhilGEPS facility is now mandatory!

With the passage of Republic Act No. 9401, the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for fiscal year 2007, it now becomes mandatory for national government agencies, GOCCs, GFIs, SUCs, and LGUs, specifically, provinces and cities to use the facilities of the Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS).

Section 86, General Provisions of the 2007 GAA requires these entities to utilize the GEPS through its electronic catalogue for the procurement of common-use supplies, and that all Invitations to Apply for Eligibility and to Bid (IAEB), Notices of Award, and all other other procurement-related notices shall be posted in the Electronic Bulletin Board.

On the other hand, regional offices of national agencies and municipal governments are enjoined to "undertake measures to ensure their on-line access and connectivity to the GEPS and its full use by the end of 2007".

No time table was set on the mandatory use of the GEPS by barangays. To require barangays to utilize the GEPS facilities may be impractical at this time considering that many of these barangays do not have computers, and/or internet connections, or that no barangay personnel has the capability to access or manage their accounts with the GEPS.

GPPB Guidelines on procurement of water and other utilities.

To address the predicament of many procuring entities on the proper mode of procurement for public utility services, the GPPB has issued Resolution No. 019-2006.

The said Resolution recognizes that the provision of certain public utility services like water, electricity, telecommunications, and internet are vital to the success and continuity of government operations, and that procurement of these services if done through public bidding would not be advantageous. Instead, the GPPB prescribes the following:

Water and Electricity - service providers are granted exclusive franchises to operate within the specific territory therefore, procurement shall be done through direct contracting.

Landline, Cellular Phones and Internet - For existing lines/connections: Contracts entered into with telcos shall be respected. But at the end of each year, an assessment as to the range and quality of services and charges shall be made and if the result of such assessment continues to favor the existing service provider, a renewal of contract can be allowed. If it does not, said services shall be bid out if there is more than one provider, or by direct contracting if there is only one provider. For additional lines, repeat order may be resorted subject to Section 51(c) of the IRR-A.

For new lines or connections - competitive public bidding if there is more than one service provider; if there is only one, direct contracting can be resorted to.

The Resolution while issued on December 6, 2006, shall take effect on April 24, 2007.

GPPB issues guidelines on procurement during election period

The election fever is heating up and has not only occupied politicians and the electorate but procurement activities as well. Of late, we have received various queries on how to go about the conduct of bidding or other alternative mode of procurement for the duration of the election period.

To help procurement officials, this is what I have gathered from the GPPB website. Resolution No. 01-2007 dated 23 February 2007, but published in the web site only last March 28th, prescribes the guidelines on the conduct of procurement activities from March 30 to May 14, 2007 (the election ban). The Resolution, in effect, reconciles and clarifies COMELEC Resolution No. 7707 (prohibited activities during the election period) with the provisions of RA 9184. In summary:

Reminder: Election ban is not designed to paralyze the operations of the government but to insulate government procurement from political partisan activities, usually in the form of new projects, which are designed to influence the public during the elections.

In general: Procuring entities can go on with the procurement whether public bidding or alternative mode (posting/advertising, pre-bid conference, bid opening, post qualification) but cannot issue the Notice of Award for the duration of the election ban (March 30, 2007 until May 14, 2007. This holds true for procurement of public works, social projects and housing-related projects.

What are allowed: The GPPB Resolution also clarifies that complete procurement activities is allowed for:

- Maintenance work involving maintenance of existing and/or completed public works projects;
- Contract entered into or awarded either through public bidding or negotiated procurement, provided it is reported to the COMELEC;
- Preparatory works like payment of preparation cost for drawings, bill of materials, etc. including purchase of materials and other incidental expenses;
- Calamity involving restoration of damaged facilities;
- Ongoing projects both locally funded and foreign-assisted that has commenced before March 30, 2007, provided this was reported to the COMELEC;
- Routine and normal expenses; and
- Expenses covered by COMELEC exemption

For better understanding, the subject Resolution can be downloaded here.

Regional Procurement Depot soon to open in Iloilo City

Upon instruction of DBM Secretary Rolando G. Andaya, Jr., preparations are underway to finally establish a regional procurement depot here in Iloilo City.

Assistant Secretary Eduardo Opida, Chairman of the Inter-Agency Bids and Awards Committee (IABAC) together with Procurement Service Executive Director Estanislao Granados came over last week to inspect the would-be office and warehouse of the depot, and also to orient the Regional Inter-Agency Bids and Awards Committee (R-IABAC). The R-IABAC which composed of the regional offices of the DBM (Chair), DTI, BLGF and DILG; and two private sector observers - is tasked to conduct the bidding of locally produced supplies and common used items that will be sold by the depot.

Timetable for the opening of the depot is between April and May. If this materializes, Region VI will be the only region with two (2) procurement depots: the pilot provincial depot in Bacolod City co-managed by the provincial government of Negros Occidental and the PS; and the soon-to-be opened depot here in Iloilo City under the DBM Regional Office VI. Abangan!

Resolving Identical Bid price

Here's a peculiar issue raised by a participant in one of our trainings: "What should the BAC do if two (2) bidders offered the same bid price?"

The commonly suggested solution is to split the contract equally among the bidders who offered identical bid proposal. Not likely. I did some research on this and luckily stumbled upon an opinion of the GPPB, PM 002-2005 way back in August 2005.

The GPPB suggested the use of drawing of lots similar to the provision of Section 240 of Batas Pambansa Bilang 881 (Omnibus Election Code). It justifies that the situation addressed is "analogous to a case of tie in the bidding process. Applying the foregoing principle in the case of breaking a tie, the use of any non-discretionary/non-discriminatory tie-breaking procedure seems to be an acceptable approach towards resolving such issue, considering that the real intent of R.A. 9184 is to eliminate all forms of discretion in bid evaluation on the part of the BAC, and that every bidder who passed the post-qualification stage is as much a LCRB as the others; hence, equally eligible and qualified".

So procurement officials, be guided.

GPM Roll-out and GPRA Updates sked for March

With the training of procurement officials of barangays in the province of Iloilo almost done, the Regional Composite Team will next reach out to the barangays in the other provinces of Panay and Guimaras. Schedule of the trainings is as follows:

March 8-9 - Provinces of Capiz and Guimaras (1st batch)
March 15-16 - Province of Capiz (2nd batch)
March 22-23 - Province of Aklan
March 27-28 - Province of Antique (1st batch)
March 29-30 - Province of Antique (2nd batch)

The trainings will be held in Punta Villa except for Antique where the MBO Association has requested to have the CAP Auditorium in San Jose as the venue.