Public procurement is the acquisition of goods and services for public purposes and covers everything from which company wins the contract to build a highway or seaport to which provides government offices with stationary. Typically, the cost of procurement around the world takes up between 15 and 30 per cent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Historically the Philippines has suffered huge problems with corruption over procurement. Indeed, a World Bank report has maintained that the perception that the Philippines has been perceived as one of the most corrupt nations in Asia “may have stemmed from reports and studies of corruption in public procurement.”

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) held its 8^th training on advanced and anti-corruption reporting dubbed as “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on June 3 at the Social Action Center of Pampanga in San Fernando City, Pampanga.

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) held its seventh training on advanced transparency and anti-corruption reporting called “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on May 27 at the Ateneo De Davao in Davao City.

The training is the second leg of the PPTRP training series in Davao City. The first was held in August 2010, where members of the media and civil society organizations were trained on basic laws on transparency and accountability and anti-corruption in the public sector and ways in monitoring and reporting corruption in their respective local governments. The recent training revisited basic concepts on corruption and later focused on understanding local government finance processes, including the powers and limitations of local government officials when it comes to budget matters. It also comprehensively tackled the procurement process, where corrupt practices reportedly continue to take place especially in the absence of public scrutiny.

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Claims that some senior officials at the Department of Education (DepEd) in Taguig City have been conspiring to defraud the public purse by fixing bidding contracts for new school buildings are being flatly denied by top officials there who say their colleague who complained of corruption is actually the one guilty of extorting “huge” sums of money from contractors while she served secretariat member of the division office’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

In a six-page comment addressed to the DepEd Central Office and dated April 18, the Division Office in Taguig City insisted there were no irregularities in the procurement process. The comment written by Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Superintendent Dr. Meleda Polita maintained that the division’s accuser was actually the one responsible for corruption.

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The Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), the country’s online procurement portal that is widely touted and cited as a model for other countries to follow, has apparently failed to protect the bidding process from corruption within the Department of Education (DepEd) and other public agencies in Taguig City.

A ‘whistleblower’ and rank-and-file employee of DepEd in Taguig City says that she was part of an illegal consortium that fixed contracts and that the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) members of the local government’s procurement department, along with several local DepEd officials have been in collusion with favored contractors in the construction of school buildings in exchange for large kickbacks.

Launched by the Department of Education in 2004, the Food for School Program (FSP) benefited some 2.8 million students and their families - including Grade 2 student Mary Rose Alacre of Kamuning Elementary School in Quezon City.

“My mother said I need to go to school so we will have rice to eat,” the schoolgirl told the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project.

During his first State of the Nation Address last month, President Benigno Aquino III spent almost five minutes talking about the National Food Authority (NFA), the state-owned grains agency.