The Procurement Service – Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) participated in the week-long celebration of Open Gov Week 2023 spearheaded by the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH–OGP) from May 8 to 12 at the Century Park Hotel, Malate, Manila.
This year’s symposium banners the theme “Co-create. Collaborate. Contribute.” which echoes the advancement of open government reforms through sharing of ideas that promote the values of transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and digital governance.
Together with other government leaders, civil society advocates, youth representatives, and citizens, PS-DBM officials namely Executive Director Atty. Dennis Santiago; Director for the Procurement Group Atty. Genmaries Entredicho-Caong; Director for the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Group Dr. Maria Teresita Semana; PhilGEPS’ e-Gov Procurement Development and Operations Division Chief Mr. James Angub; and PhilGEPS’ Information Technology Services Division Chief Mr. Karl Michael Espejo took part in various activities that bridged partnership between the government and non-government sectors.
In her welcome remarks, DBM Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, who also chairs the PH-OGP Steering Committee, encouraged participants to take advantage of the available tools today in pursuit of the government’s digitalization efforts. For its part, PS- DBM is presently instituting transformational reforms and policies that include the streamlining of its public procurement process.
Alongside the discourses on anti-corruption, public accountability, and technological innovations, PS-DBM officials also attended a session on the Philippines’ Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Results Report that highlighted the implementation status of the commitments for the 5 th OGP National Action Plan (NAP), as well as the effective practices and constraints in executing open government reforms. This forum also initiated the co-creation of the 6 th OGP NAP.
In the last five years, the Philippines has actively collaborated with OGP — a multilateral organization of reformers from government, civil society networks, businesses, and non- profits.