It is said that it is the duty of the government to burden the people it governs with
taxes, therefore acquiring funds which are appropriated to various mediums like
the education sector, interior and local government, infrastructures, and many
more. But what if there are discrepancies in funding? Like graft and corruption?
And the procurement of such funds? Who then will initiate reform and address the
lack of transparency and accountability? There’s the Procurement Watch Inc. which
is a non-profit non-partisan civil society organization that was created y a group
of concerned and seasoned professionals from the government, academe, legal
individuals, and the private sector. This organization was brought into fruition to
the challenge of reducing, if not eliminating, corruption and graft in the government
through procurement reform.

Even during the late 90’s up to the present, the Philippine government has been
plagued by various criticisms and controversies in regards to procurement and
funding appropriation. In a past World Bank report last 2000; the Ombudsman
identified an estimated loss of over $40.6 billion over the last 20years which is
even bigger than the contry’s foreign debt. Furthermore, th Commission on Audit
reported that the annual cost of corruption to the government amounted to Php 2
billion pesos. Just imagine how detrimental these issues mar the country, to think
that poverty is still on the rise with ever changing markets and blatant inflation rates.
The government really has to get checked for constant graft and corruption.
There was also a recent corruption ranking that an independent global research
firm named Transparency International initiated, which showed the widespread
corruption in the Philippines in the 2003 Corruption Perceptions Inde (CPI) The
organization ranked the Philippines as 92nd of the 133 countries covered by the
survey, sharing the spot with other corruption plagued countries like Albania,
Zambia, Argentian, Ethiopia, Gambia, Tanzania, and Pakistan. If you’rewondering
on how the CPI survey was formed, it is form of composite index that draws on 17
different polls and surveys from 13 different and independent institutions carried
out among business people and country analysts, including the surveys or residents
from local and expatriates ones.

State of Philippine Public Procurement
- According to the World Bank’s Philippine Country Management Unit (2000),
1 a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in 1998 ROLE OF
CIVIL SOCIETY IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORMS IN THE PHILIPPINES 39
revealed that about 38% of those asked believed that there was a “great
deal” of corruption in government, while 34% replied “some”. The majority
of the respondents perceived that more than 50% of government funds were
wasted in building roads alone.

- According to Senator Edgardo J. Angara (2002), the Department of Budget
and Management (DBM) estimated that an average of Php 22 billion annually
was lost to graft and corruption in public procurement of locally funded
projects alone. P22 billion is twice the budget of the Department of Health.
This is equivalent to 520 million textbooks for Philippine public school
children or 63,000 new classrooms. This amount also translates to 1,500
kilometers of concrete farm-to-market roads. (ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT REFORMS IN THE PHILIPPINES)
Procurement is the government activity that huge losses are perceived to
occur. Reforms are required so a substantial impact and the delivery of
apporiated funds to important sectors and alleviation of basic social services
to poverty stricken areas in the country can ba achieved.

- Increase the initiative to reduce corruption in public procurement, it is a
public good but it also suffers from a free rider problem, which is collective
action. Even if majorities of the people want to see a reduction of corruption
in public procurement, there are only few who are willing to invest time
and effort in it. The Procurement Watch opts to organize and advocate the
passage and proper implementation of a landmark procurement reform bill.