As of 2007

Capacitating Civil Society Organizations’ Procurement Trainers, Observers, and Monitors

PWI recently concluded this project in partnership with the Office of the Ombudsman and with generous funding from the European Commission. The project involved giving three types of training courses, primarily to Civil Society Organizations, throughout the Philippines. One type of training course is the usual Training of Procurement Observers. But PWI also gave a Training of Contract Implementation Monitors, and a Training of Trainers, which combines the curricula of the Training of Observers and the Training of Monitors. Three hundred sixty-four people – 255 from Civil Society and 109 from the government – finished the training courses held in Quezon City, Baguio City, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City. For the Training of Monitors component, PWI had the generous help of experts from G-Watch, the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government, the Office of the Ombudsman, as well as of several individual consultants.

Feedback and Complaint Handling Mechanism 2

This is Phase 2 of a project implemented in 2005. Under Phase 2, which ran from September 2006 to September 2007, the Feedback and Complaint Handling Mechanism was finalized and published as Ombudsman Office Order No. 66; a “laymanized” primer on the Office Order was published; and Orientation Workshops on the Procurement Law (RA 9184) and the specifics of the Feedback and Complaint Handling Mechanism were given to Resident Ombudsmen and CSO Procurement Observers in Quezon City, Tagaytay City, Iloilo City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City. An evaluative case study was also conducted to test the effectiveness of the mechanism and the extent of compliance with its rules and procedures.

Differential Expenditure Efficiency Measurement

With funding from the USAID through The Asia Foundation, PWI created a tool for measuring the efficiency of public procurement. Essentially, the tool works by comparing what the government actually paid for a certain item (“actual” cost), and how much the item costs in a fair, open, competitive market (“true” cost). The tool is based on the premise that the open, competitive bidding procedures mandated by RA 9184, if adhered to, should result in prices comparable to those of a fair market. The tool was successfully pilot-tested at the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center.

As of 2005

Training of Trainers

PWI is currently conducting Training of Trainers (TOT) for CSOs and Professional Associations in different regions of the country to increase the pool of experts in the field of procurement. The TOT shall assist in expediting the cascading of knowledge and information required for would-be BAC observers.

Feedback and Complaint Handling Mechanism

The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) with assistance from PWI crafted the draft Operational Guidelines on the Feedback and Complaint Handling mechanism for BAC Observers, which is currently being pilot-tested in pre-selected government entities.
The BAC observer's report/feedback handling primarily addresses the reports filed by the BAC observers on deviations from the GPRA observed during bidding activities of government agencies/LGUs. Complaint handling on the other hand, addresses the criminal and/or administrative complaints filed against erring BAC chairmen/members -government officials/employees and their co-conspirators.

Deployment Mechanism

The Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) in coordination with PWI is currently undertaking a project on the development of a deployment mechanism for BAC observers. The objectives of the deployment mechanism are to provide service to government by matching their need for CSO observers to the expertise and preference of available CSO observers; to get higher turnout in attendance of CSOs in procurement observation work; and to develop specialization among CSO observers.

Expert Panel Workshop

PWI organizes special Expert Panel Workshops to provide a venue for the assessment of the content, length, and order of the Standard Training Module and Program used for the TOT in order to further improve the Trainings conducted.