The Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management, represented by Executive Director (ED) Dennis S. Santiago, joined the Philippine Delegation to the 8 th Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit from September 4 to 8, 2023 in Tallin, Estonia. Led by DBM Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman — who also chairs the Philippine OGP (PH-OGP) — they formed part of the more than 2,000 high-level government representatives, civil society leaders, and policy makers from more than 130 countries worldwide who bannered the theme, “Open Governance for a Resilient Future.”
This is OGP’s first in-person event since 2019. Organized in collaboration with the Government of Estonia — which took over co-chairmanship of OGP in October 2022 — the week-long event was filled with engaging discussions, meetings, and workshops that renewed the participants’ commitment to open governance by highlighting the values of transparency, accountability, and participation in pushing for global democracy. These activities also allowed for the exchange of experiences and best practices to bolster open government initiatives and implementation.
Apart from the main programme were other plenary sessions, keynotes, consultations, roundtables, side events, and thematic breakout sessions that covered various themes such as anti-corruption, civic space and participation, climate and environment, digital governance, open justice, democratic resilience, law, and crisis readiness, among others.
The Philippines hosted two events at the sidelines of the Summit.
On September 4, the “Innovation Talks: Fostering Transparency and Public Participation through Open Budget Portals” was conducted. This highlighted the existing technologies and innovative approaches that have played a key role in opening Public Financial Management. Through presentations and live demonstrations, proponents of several fiscal transparency portals shared how digital solutions have contributed in increasing public understanding of the budget process and expanding opportunities for them to get involved in the different budget phases. The substantial opportunities that digital technology offers in making public budgets more open and responsive to citizen needs were also tackled.
On September 7, ED Santiago took part in another Philippine-hosted session titled, “From Inclusion to Impact: Harnessing the Power of the People to Make Public Budgets More Responsive.” Here, participants delved into lessons and challenges in establishing meaningful public participation across various phases of the budget cycle and at different levels of government. ED Santiago emphasized the value of citizens’ and civil society organizations’ involvement in every aspect of the procurement process — from planning, selection, to contract implementation
Secretary Pangandaman, meanwhile, participated in High-Level Roundtable Discussions, namely, “Sustaining Leadership and Catalyzing Global Action on Anti- Corruption” and “Making Democracies Stronger through Openness” on September 6 and 7, respectively.
Other members of the Philippine Delegation also had their respective engagements from around 50 sessions.
PS-DBM, following its participation in the Global Summit, renews its commitment to actively participate in OGP’s future events and activities to ensure the fulfilment of its mandate, that is, to operate a centralized procurement of Common-use Supplies and Equipment for the whole of Philippine Government with accountability, efficiency, integrity, and transparency.