House bill filed to speed up government procurement process

A bill has been filed at the House of Representatives which seeks to speed up the process of government bidding and procurement.

House Bill 8539, authored by Quirino Representative Dakila Carlo Cua, aims to amend the Government Procurement Reform Act and introduce express mode and electronic shopping as alternative methods of procurement.

In filing the bill, Cua stressed the importance of making the procurement process easier, efficient and less tedious.

Through the express mode, the government will be allowed to directly procure from a winning bidder that previously won through competitive bidding.

In order to make sure that the government continues get the value for money, there will be a challenge period for other interested bidders to make better offers.

"A big portion of government procurement is repeated every year. We want to make it easier for government to procure goods and services that it has previously acquired and has knowledge of," Cua said.

"That way, government can spend less time on bureaucratic processes and more time in providing services to the people,” he added.

Meanwhile in electronic shopping, technology is used to solicit price quotations from rated products.

The quotation for rated products will serve as the basis for the government to select the best offer.

Cua drew inspiration from various online shopping platforms in coming up with the idea of electronic shopping as an alternative method of procurement.

“When the Government Procurement Reform Act was passed 15 years ago, popular online shopping platforms like eBay or Amazon were not in existence yet. We’ve seen how technology has made it easy for buyers to do their own research, compare prices, and select the best offer that fits within their budgets," Cua said.

"As one of the biggest consumers in the country, government will greatly benefit from an online platform that can facilitate its procurement,” he added.

Using the rating system for goods procured by the government, products will be rated based on their technical specifications and user feedback.

The online platform also allows the government to easily filter through similar products of different qualities and determine which product will be the best.

"Our procurement law places a heavy burden on procuring entities to do their research and craft specifications accurately. At present, the different government entities work in silos. This leads to work being repeated across different entities," Cua said.

"By establishing a rating system together with the online platform, we can have a standardized and transparent database that will prevent one agency from repeating due diligence that has already been done previously," he added. — Erwin Colcol/ LDF, GMA News