21 November 2005
OPINION: E-procurement: So who’s posting & who’s shopping?
AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
A QUICK browse of the website of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would easily reveal that despite the much-ballyhooed government e-procurement system already being in effect, local government units still appear hesitant to use it to post their supply and services requirements in.
Hesitant -- or defiant, that is.
Only about four or five local government units (LGUs) in Pangasinan, we noticed in our scan, were posting their invitations to bid or supply needs at bid prices of from P50,000 to P250,000 on the DBM e-procurement site to include Sual and Santo Tomas and three others we could not now recall.
If this implies anything, it is that all or most of the rest would be still using the old system of sending out notices for bidding or worse, not sending notices out at all. A few others probably still take out paid newspaper advertising space that quite often, is manipulated with some corrupt publishers so that these don’t get circulated at all in the newsstands (quite obviously, to prevent open bidding) and copies are just given to the advertiser-LGU for paper compliance to auditing and accounting requirements. Do we see our friend, the unyielding Lydia Colobong Arilla of Agno nodding in full agreement?
We got into a little chat with Santo Tomas’ super-efficient lady treasurer Julieta Alvarado some weeks back and, according to her, LGUs who have used the e-procurement swear they were able to buy their supplies or services from the DBM at almost half the usual commercial price!
That alone, if not the sheer convenience of shopping right in the comfort of one’s office with just the click of a mouse, should be enough reason for cash-strapped towns or cities to go the e-procurement way. But many of them still don’t; neither do they post their bidding notices on the Net.
We recall some district engineers of the DPWH too citing the government e-procurement policy as the reason for the absence now of their once familiar invitation to bid notices in local newspapers. They are now supposedly posting their big-budgeted projects for bidding in the DBM website. Which, as far as that agency is concerned, should somehow minimize collusion and hanky-panky in the awarding of winning bidders – or, has it?
It is time, government, i.e. local government units, show they indeed are into belt-tightening as a way of safeguarding the people’s money given in their care. And they can do this by doing away with frivolous spending and really implementing the enshrined policy of accepting only those bids that “are most advantageous to government”-- not to the approving or signing officers.
* * * * *
You should hear Dagupan’s young Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez mouthing his piece on the current debates at the Consultative Commission to which he is now a member. He was appointed by President Arroyo last October 25. He admits to being a bit awed – at first – by the likes of the, Espinas, Abuevas, Garcias dissecting issues on the Constitution on the discussion floor but eventually getting the hang of it and once I n a while now putting in a word edgewise among the debate giants.
The Con-Com commissioners (to include Alvin, of course) – or at least five or six of them -- are coming to town on December 2 for the Pangasinan leg of their mandated consultations with the people. The consultation-workshop will be at the Regency Hotel grand ballroom in Calasiao, simultaneous with one to be held in Vigan, where another set of commissioners will “commune” with the people. The following day, Dec. 3, the two groups will converge in La Union for a public dialogue.
But back to VM Alvin, the young executive is now so full of ideas on just what an ideal structure and form of government should be that, chances are you’d go away from a conversation with him infected by all the political thoughts he spews. Trust us, we did.
At least now we know that a federal system of government, for a change, would be good overall … if not for one thing: the national (federal) guys would still be the ones doing the revenue collection with the provinces (states) still awaiting the release of their share from them.
But don’t take it from us, ask Commissioner Alvin. He has a mouthful to say on that.
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
A QUICK browse of the website of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would easily reveal that despite the much-ballyhooed government e-procurement system already being in effect, local government units still appear hesitant to use it to post their supply and services requirements in.
Hesitant -- or defiant, that is.
Only about four or five local government units (LGUs) in Pangasinan, we noticed in our scan, were posting their invitations to bid or supply needs at bid prices of from P50,000 to P250,000 on the DBM e-procurement site to include Sual and Santo Tomas and three others we could not now recall.
If this implies anything, it is that all or most of the rest would be still using the old system of sending out notices for bidding or worse, not sending notices out at all. A few others probably still take out paid newspaper advertising space that quite often, is manipulated with some corrupt publishers so that these don’t get circulated at all in the newsstands (quite obviously, to prevent open bidding) and copies are just given to the advertiser-LGU for paper compliance to auditing and accounting requirements. Do we see our friend, the unyielding Lydia Colobong Arilla of Agno nodding in full agreement?
We got into a little chat with Santo Tomas’ super-efficient lady treasurer Julieta Alvarado some weeks back and, according to her, LGUs who have used the e-procurement swear they were able to buy their supplies or services from the DBM at almost half the usual commercial price!
That alone, if not the sheer convenience of shopping right in the comfort of one’s office with just the click of a mouse, should be enough reason for cash-strapped towns or cities to go the e-procurement way. But many of them still don’t; neither do they post their bidding notices on the Net.
We recall some district engineers of the DPWH too citing the government e-procurement policy as the reason for the absence now of their once familiar invitation to bid notices in local newspapers. They are now supposedly posting their big-budgeted projects for bidding in the DBM website. Which, as far as that agency is concerned, should somehow minimize collusion and hanky-panky in the awarding of winning bidders – or, has it?
It is time, government, i.e. local government units, show they indeed are into belt-tightening as a way of safeguarding the people’s money given in their care. And they can do this by doing away with frivolous spending and really implementing the enshrined policy of accepting only those bids that “are most advantageous to government”-- not to the approving or signing officers.
* * * * *
You should hear Dagupan’s young Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez mouthing his piece on the current debates at the Consultative Commission to which he is now a member. He was appointed by President Arroyo last October 25. He admits to being a bit awed – at first – by the likes of the, Espinas, Abuevas, Garcias dissecting issues on the Constitution on the discussion floor but eventually getting the hang of it and once I n a while now putting in a word edgewise among the debate giants.
The Con-Com commissioners (to include Alvin, of course) – or at least five or six of them -- are coming to town on December 2 for the Pangasinan leg of their mandated consultations with the people. The consultation-workshop will be at the Regency Hotel grand ballroom in Calasiao, simultaneous with one to be held in Vigan, where another set of commissioners will “commune” with the people. The following day, Dec. 3, the two groups will converge in La Union for a public dialogue.
But back to VM Alvin, the young executive is now so full of ideas on just what an ideal structure and form of government should be that, chances are you’d go away from a conversation with him infected by all the political thoughts he spews. Trust us, we did.
At least now we know that a federal system of government, for a change, would be good overall … if not for one thing: the national (federal) guys would still be the ones doing the revenue collection with the provinces (states) still awaiting the release of their share from them.
But don’t take it from us, ask Commissioner Alvin. He has a mouthful to say on that.
