Briones wants changes in procurement laws

Education Secretary Leonor Briones wants to work with Congress to amend procurement laws that are hampering spending, especially for the Department of Education (DepEd) which is working to address shortages in classrooms, schoolbuildings, textbooks and other resources.

The DepEd is still facing challenges on slow procurement of requirements of the department especially with the inefficiencies arising from the procurement law, according to Briones.

She pointed out that the slow procurement process was a source of frustration for the DepEd, considering the one-year lapse of the budget appropriation for government departments and agencies.

“The problem of underutilization has been going on for how many administrations. It’s also a question of laws which were passed to make things efficient at the time they were passed, but at this time make things inefficient. Laws, procedures, regulations which paralyze our people, which prevent them from acting because they are afraid of incurring complaints before the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman,” the DepEd chief said.

Aside from implementing financial reforms within the DepEd, Briones instructed the identification of laws that impede effective budget spending on planned programs and projects, which will be furnished to Congress.

Foremost of the laws is Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, wherein a review of the alternative modes of procurement in view of the one-year validity of appropriations may help in addressing bottlenecks in fund obligation.

Considering the short validity of appropriations for one year, one of DepEd’s proposals is that negotiated procurement be allowed after only one failed bidding instead of the current admissible two failed biddings.