Poor internet link blamed for government underspending

Poor internet connection may have been a major contributor to the delays in government spending for the past years, resulting in the massive unspent budget allocations that ultimately slowed down the economy’c growth potential, a study by state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.

The discussion paper, “The Promises and Pains in Procure­ment Reforms in the Philippines”, authored by National Economic and Development Authority Un­dersecretary Adoracion Navarro and PIDS Research Analyst Juan Alfonso Tanghal examined the pro­curement system in the country to fully understand the challenges in its implementation. Navarro wrote the paper while she was a senior research fellow at PIDS.

In terms of the functional­ity of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), accessibility is among the major issues, the study said.

The PhilGEPS was conceived in line with the aim of government to introduce transparency in the bidding for projects and placed most of the auction process on­line.

The PhilGEPS is the Depart­ment of Budget and Manage­ment’s (DBM) centralized electron­ic portal that serves as the primary source of information about gov­ernment procurement.

The study found, however, that due to unreliable internet con­nection, government agencies of­ten post during ‘dead’ hours or on weekends, when it is possible to upload large files.

The PIDS study, thus, urged government agencies to pursue investments on systems change and organizational culture change, invest on planning and other pre­paratory activities before the ac­tual procurement, innovate orien­tation in public procurement, and adopt value-for-money procure­ment. RIZA LOZADA