Republic Act No.
9184 January 10, 2003 (a) Transparency in the procurement process
AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE MODERNIZATION,
STANDARIZATION AND REGULATION OF THE
PROCUREMENT ACTIVITIES OF THE
GOVERNMENT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and Hose of
Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:
ARTICLE 1
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section 1. Short Title.- This act shall be known as
the " Government Procurement reform Act."
Procurement means The process includes
preparation and processing of a demand as well
as the end receipt and approval of payment. It
often involves
(1) purchase planning,
(2) standards determination,
(3) specifications development,
(4) supplier research and selection,
(5) value analysis,
(6) financing,
(7) price negotiation,
(8) making the purchase,
(9) supply contract administration,
(10) inventory control and stores, and
(11) disposals and other related functions.
Read more:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/
procurement.html
Section 2. Declaration of Policy.- It is the
declared policy of the State to promote the
ideals of good governance in all its branches,
departments, agencies, subdivisions, and
instrumentalities, including government-owned
and/or -controlled corporations and local
government units.
Section 3. Governing Principles on Government
Procurement.
All procurement of the national government, its
departments, bureaus, offices and agencies,
including state universities and colleges,
government -owned and/or-controlled
corporations, government financial institutions
and local government units, shall, in all cases,
be governed by these principles:
and in the implementation of procurement
contracts.
(b) Competitiveness by extending equal
opportunity to enable private contracting
parties who are eligible and qualified to
participate in public bidding.
(c) Streamlined procurement process that will
uniformly apply to all government
procurement. The procurement process shall
simple and made adaptable to advances in
modern technology in order to ensure an
effective and efficient method.
(d) System of accountability where both the
public officials directly or indirectly involved in
the procurement process as well as in the
implementation of procurement contracts and
the private parties that deal with government
are, when warranted by circumstances,
investigated and held liable for their actions
relative thereto.
(e) Public monitoring of the procurement
process and the implementation of awarded
contracts with the end in view of guaranteeing
that these contracts are awarded pursuant to
the provisions of this Act and its implementing
rules and regulations, and that all these
contracts are performed strictly according to
specifications.
Section 4. Scope and Application.- This act shall
apply to the Procurement of Infrastructure
Projects, Goods and Consulting Services,
regardless of source of funds, whether local of
foreign, by all branches and instrumentalities of
government, its departments, offices and
agencies, including government-owned and/or-
controlled corporations and local government
units, subject to the provisions of
Commonwealth Act No. 138. Any treaty or
international or executive agreement affecting
the subject matter of this Act to which the
Philippine government is signatory shall be
observed.
Reason why RA 9184 was made
1. Public procurement is dead. It means
fraud, inefficiency and and lack of
transparency.
2. PHILGEPS- Philippine Government
Electronic Procurement System
established yr 2000
3. It lets gov’t entities to post online the
civil works, goods and consultation
infos.
4. It mandates registration of all public
entities including state universities and
lgu’s.
5. Philgeps was been presented their
reports and experienceon other
countries like Cambodia, South Korea
and Singapore. and US
6. Philgeps is recognized on 2010 by GPP
7. Philgeps offers e payment, online store,
e catalogue. E bulletin board, e bidding
ADVANTAGES OF RA 9184
1. Transparency
2. It allows public to see real time
observation, bidding info, winning
bidder
3. Competitive bidding- get just and better
prices
4. Accountability
5. effiency
6. Anti corruption
7. Low budget finance because di na sila
magproproduce ng info as mandated
advertisement sa major newspaper like
Phil Inquirer and the Phil Star
8. Phil governemet nakatipid ng 932.8
million kasi once nalang nagaadvertise
ang mga bidder sa newspaper
9. Suppliers and contractors even outside
the country can register here. 24/7
NEWS TO COUNTERACT “CORRUPTION”
THE Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas
has suspended for one month and a day
without pay five officials of Ronda
Municipal Hall for their failure to post bid
notices on the government website in
2012. Eileen Mae Lagat-Alde, graft
investigation and prosecution officer,
suspended the respondents after they
were found liable of simple neglect of
duty. “Posting in the website is mandated
for all government procurement in
consonance with the principles of
transparency and competitiveness,” read
Alde’s 10-page decision. The suspended
officials are Municipal Engineer Oscar
Pilapil, Municipal Budget Officer Thelma
Landiza, Municipal Assistant Treasurer
Brigida Cabaron, and Frauline Requilme
and Evelina Tan, bids and awards
committee (BAC) members. The case
stemmed from the criminal and
administrative complaint filed by Jonald
“Moymoy” Blanco Ungab against his
uncle, Mayor Mariano “Nonie” Blanco, and
the five municipal officials last May 2,
2014. Pilapil served as BAC chairman
while Landiza and Cabaron served as BAC
vice-chairman and member, respectively.
Ungab, son of Nonie’s sister and brother
of incumbent Vice Mayor Jonah John
Ungab, said the respondents violated
Republic Act 9184 (Government
Procurement Reform Act of 2003) for
their alleged failure to post all the
procurement notices of their municipality
in the Philippine Government Electronic
Procurement System (Philgeps). It is the
official website for government projects
subject for bidding, which is one of the
Commission on Audit (COA)
requirements. Ungab said only one of 16
invitations to bid for millions of peso
worth of various government
procurements of Ronda was posted the
Philgeps’ electronic bulletin board for
2012 to 2013. The respondents denied
they manipulated the bidding process
when they failed to post the invitation to
bid in the Philgeps website to favor
certain suppliers. They said they
submitted the Philgeps bid notice
abstracts and invitation to bid and were
posted in the bulletin board. Mayor Network (TAN), offered a succinct summary
Blanco said they did not act in bad faith of the current state of public procurement in
and malice in the performance of their the Philippines,
functions. He said the alleged offense was The Philippines is cited very often for having
a world-class type of legal framework for
committed in 2012 to 2013. When he got [procurement], but where we fail most of the
reelected in the May 2013 elections, time is in actual compliance and
Blanco said the administrative complaint implementation. So here we are 10 years
against him should be dismissed pursuant into the law and we are still having huge
to the Aguinaldo Doctrine. In the decision, implementation problems. (18:50)
graft investigator Alde said the
respondents could be held liable for
simple neglect of duty for their failure to
post the bid notices in the Philgeps
website. “The office is aware of the policy
that in promoting transparency and
efficiency, information and
communications technology such as the
Philgeps should be utilized in the conduct
of procurement procedures,” said Alde in
the decision.

ABOUT THE SYSTEM

The Reform Act, and the Implementing
Rules and Regulations (IRR) codify the
general principle of transparency and civil
society involvement in two specific ways.
First, the law creates an e-procurement
portal, PhilGEPS, which serves “as the
primary and definitive source of information
on government procurement.”(IRR, 8.1.1)
According to law, all public tenders, from
those conducted by federal agencies to
those of the smallest Local Government
Unit (LGU) or Barangay, must pass through
the PhilGEPS system. At all stages of
procurement, the procurement committee
invites a representative of the Commission
on Audit and (at least) two outside
observers to sit in its proceedings. The
outside observers should include “one (1)
from a duly recognized private group in a
sector or discipline relevant to the
procurement at hand, and the other from a
non-government organization.” (IRR, 3.1.1)
However, we find that in practice the
promise of these principles is largely
unrealized. Vincent Lazatin, the executive of
the Transparency and Accountability