DBM to present amendments to procurement law to Marcos next week

The Department of Budget Management (DBM) will present its proposed amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. next week, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Tuesday.

The DBM chief disclosed this when asked by senators about the government's plan to address underspending during the Senate finance committee briefing on the Proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

According to Pangandaman, underspending is defined as the difference between the program disbursements from actual disbursements.

Citing DBM data, Pangandaman said for the first semester of 2023, the funds tagged as underspending is at P170.5 billion.

The data is from the computation of the program disbursement, which is at P2.582 trillion, and the actual disbursement, which is at P2.411 trillion, for the first semester of 2023.

“We have steps to address government spending and budget utilization. For government procurement, it is the only one that needs legislation and you know that during the SONA (State of the Nation Address) of the President, it was again mentioned to amend the Government Procurement Reform Act,” Pangandaman said.

“With that, we will be presenting our amendments to the GPRA to the President next week… We don’t have the bill yet but we have the specific amendments,” she added.

Pangandaman said officials of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPBB) can brief the senators on the amendments to the law.

During his second State of the Nation Address, Marcos called for the passage of new  procurement and auditing laws amid "changing times."

The Government Procurement Reform Act was passed in 2003, while the Government Auditing Code was issued in 1978 by Marcos' father and namesake, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. —KBK, GMA Integrated News