Philippine Rural Development Program Deputy Program Director Arnel de Mesa stresses the importance of determining the readiness and mitigation measures of calamity-stricken municipalities in Regions VII and VIII during the kick-off meeting of the Rapid Procurement Appraisal Assessment in the two regions on April 21, 2014 in Mandaue City, Cebu.

PRDP procurement team conducts rapid appraisal assessment in Regions 7, 8

Date Published: April 23, 2014
April 23, 2014—To assess the level of readiness in procurement activities of Provincial Local Government Units (PLGUs) in regions VII and VIII which were affected by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake last year, the Procurement Unit  of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) National Program Coordination Office (NPCO) conducts  a three-week rapid procurement appraisal in the two regions.

The Rapid Procurement Appraisal started its kick-off meeting on April 21, 2014 in Cebu and will end on May 7 in Samar.

During the meeting, PRDP Deputy Program Director Arnel V. de Mesa said it is important for the PRDP-NPCO and the World Bank to find out the readiness and mitigation measures in calamity-stricken areas identified to ensure that the I-REAP and I-BUILD activities are realized

He added that among the important issues that need to be addressed during the assessment include: validity of sub-projects, viability of contractors, logistics flow, manpower, and priority areas.

The team which is composed of representatives from NPCO-Procurement Unit, I-BUILD, I-REAP, Geotagging and Geomapping and Monitoring and Evaluation will conduct Focused Group Discussions with regional counterpart and PLGUs. Also, the team will visit I-REAP and I-BUILD sub-project sites in areas affected by Yolanda and earthquake to assess the availability of construction materials, contractors and suppliers under an emergency procurement as part of the reconstruction effort in the affected provinces.

De Mesa said that the sub-projects in identified municipalities which were damaged by last year’s calamities such as in Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Samar, and Eastern Samar will be prioritized.

Moreover, these affected municipalities are exempted from the submission of Value Chain Analysis and Provincial Commodity Investment Plan during PRDP’s year one.

In January, a rapid procurement appraisal assessment was conducted in Region VI in coordination with World Bank Procurement Specialist Noel Sta. Ines. The assessment found that Program Support Office (PSO) Visayas and Regional Program Coordination Office (RPCO) VI have reasonable procurement capacity to handle the initial packages for year one, but will have to be increased in the next few months in proportion to the number of incoming sub-projects.

After the completion of all the assessment activities, a report on the findings of assessment will be submitted for possible inclusion in the World Bank’s Project Appraisal Document. (Catherine Nanta, InfoACE-NPCO)

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