The Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Group of the Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) met with representatives of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (OGP) on February 2, 2023 to review PhilGEPS’ commitments to the Philippines’ National Action Plan under OGP.
OGP is a multilateral initiative that initiates action plans and programs to foster transparency and accountability in governance, promote citizen participation in public decision making, and leverage information and communications technology for citizen participation.
Represented by Executive Director Dennis Santiago and PhilGEPS officials, PS-DBM presented updates on the status of milestones resulting from the agency’s fulfilment of its commitments for the project. These commitments are anchored on OGP values such as transparency and access to information, public accountability, and civic participation.
Fundamentally, the goal is to harness the value of PhilGEPS data through engagement of stakeholders to avoid inefficiencies in the procurement process. By improving the online publication of procurement data by PhilGEPS and other procuring entities through collaborations with civil society, media, the private sector, and other government agencies, public monitoring and audit of public procurement are enabled.
Over time, this will improve the stakeholders’ data literacy as manifested in their appreciation and analysis of contracting data to be used for monitoring of procurement projects; evidence for policy and practice recommendations; providing feedback; and participating in government decision-making.
Apart from the commitments and milestones, other matters discussed were the success contributors, challenges and changes, actions taken, and outcomes of the implementation.
This initiative goes beyond improving the open contracting process; OGP intends to build public trust and integrity and enhance public service delivery by eliminating corruption and avoiding leakages and wastage of government funds.