PS-DBM to open online supply store

PS-DBM executive director Dennis Santiago

MANILA, Philippines — The Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) announced on Tuesday that it was setting up an online store for all supplies to enhance the system of government purchases.

At a news briefing in Malacañang, PS-DBM executive director Dennis Santiago said the e-Marketplace (electronic marketplace) digital platform would cut short the procurement process for vehicles, heavy equipment and common-use supplies.

E-Marketplace functions like other popular online commerce platforms Lazada, Shopee and Amazon.

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“With e-Marketplace, we would no longer need to convene the bids and awards committee … [The] procuring entity, basically through perhaps their procurement service or, let’s say, their admin service, will have to go to the e-Marketplace to conduct the procurement itself,” Santiago said.

He made the statement after emerging from a sectoral meeting wherein President Marcos supposedly approved the rollout of the online store.

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Less costly

“With the e-Marketplace, [we] have products already in the system, [and] then the government procuring entities will have to select from those products and then already make an order right there and then,” Santiago said.

Besides shortening the government procurement process, e-Marketplace also makes purchases less costly, with a single procurement that may be completed in as fast as three days, he added.

The PS-DBM had been flagged in the past by the Senate blue ribbon committee, first for supposedly conspiring with some Department of Education officials to purchase P2.4 billion worth of overpriced laptops at the height of the pandemic.

This was on top of the allegedly irregular purchase of P42 billion worth of pandemic supplies for the Department of Health including P11.5 billion it procured from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.