Is it fair? Is it economic? Is it efficient? Is it transparent? Is it accountable? These are questions that the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) procurement team asks when evaluating bids for its subprojects.

“Tayo sa PRDP, thorough tayo mag-review. Sa atin ang tagal, ang higpit, because we make sure na complete ang process. This is to ensure na ’yong perang ni-loan natin sa World Bank ay maibibigay talaga sa beneficiaries (With PRDP, we conduct thorough review. We implement strict measures no matter how long it takes to complete the process. This is to ensure that the money we loaned from the World Bank would really go to the intended beneficiaries),” PRDP South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) Procurement Specialist Maria Rhoda Lavinia Mendoza said during the Pre-Procurement Conference for the Camarines Sur Coconut Sap Sugar Processing Center held on March 7 in Pili, Camarines Sur.

The Project is mandated to conduct a pre-procurement conference prior to posting or publication of invitations to bid. Members of the Province of Camarines Sur’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and technical working group listened to Mendoza as she provided a refresher training on the World Bank PRDP Harmonized Procurement Guidelines. She also discussed the reasons for non-responsiveness of bids as well as the common mistakes that local government units (LGUs) and bidders/contractors commit including deficient number of days in the publication of the Invitation to Bid (ITB) in the newspaper, erroneous Philippine Bidding Documents (PBD) and inconsistent items of work in the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) under the bidder’s financial proposal and the approved PBD’s BOQ.

“Procurement is inextricably linked with implementation and disbursement so if it causes unreasonable delay at this stage, then we cannot expect that we will be implementing the subproject as planned,” PRDP-Bicol Procurement Unit Head Imelda Acompañado said.

She stressed that although the region is not the procuring entity, constant follow up and monitoring of LGUs’ compliance documents are necessary to achieve targets.

“If there is timely procurement, there would be timely implementation. Ultimately, timely implementation leads to immediate benefits and impact to the lives of the people. If there are FMRs in place and microenterprises provided, it would contribute greatly to PRDP’s goal to increase farmers’ income,” Acompañado added.

The PRDP-Bicol procurement unit beefed up its manpower complement and designated specific focal persons to each province to facilitate smooth procurement process. As of February 28, 2017, PRDP-Bicol has 13 infrastructure development (I-BUILD) subprojects worth P717.93 million and five I-REAP subprojects with a total cost of P54.58 million under procurement. ### (Annielyn L. Baleza, DA-PRDP RPCO V InfoACE Unit)  

Members of the Camarines Sur’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and technical working group of Camarines Sur attended the Pre-Procurement Conference prior to the posting of invitation to bid for the Camarines Sur Coconut Sap Sugar Processing Center. (Photo by Annielyn L. Baleza, DA-PRDP RPCO V InfoACE Unit)