Manila (Philippines), 20 January 2023 – In the Philippines, UNODC is supporting the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) for technical assistance related to public procurement processes and the use of open data, digital tools, and data analytics to better prevent, detect, and mitigate corruption risks. As a primary aspect of the Philippine Government's public procurement reform agenda, the GPPB was established to protect the national interest in all matters affecting public procurement and to formulate and amend public procurement policies.
The GPPB is supported by its Technical Support Office (TSO) to provide support in the performance of its duties and responsibilities, particularly through the evaluation of effectiveness of the government procurement system and procurement reform programs and to monitor the performance and compliance of government agencies with the procurement rules, among others. Additionally, the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) was established following the passage of the Government Procurement Reform Act. It was designed as a single, centralized automated online portal that serves as the primary and definitive source of information on government procurement.
GPPB-TSO and PhilGEPS are both publishing procurement data using the Open Contracting Data Standards, which is the most globally recognized open data standard for collecting and publishing information on public contracting processes. This allows various stakeholders — such as procuring entities, law enforcement agencies, and civil society — to use digital tools and data analysis to better prevent, detect, and mitigate corruption risks in public procurement.
The purpose of this data mapping workshop, held in Manila on January 20th 2023, was to ensure that the publications by GPPB and PhilGEPS are combined and coordinate to achieve a complete picture of contracting in the Philippines without any duplicates. This approach requires careful coordination at a technical level to ensure that the data can be merged in a meaningful way without creating duplicates or nonsensical results.
During the workshop, UNODC and Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) conducted a technical assessment template training for GPPB and PhilGEPS. The training provided instructions on how to complete the template, ensuring that all necessary information is provided. GPPB and PhilGEPS worked together to accurately identify and describe the IT systems that capture and store contracted data and related documents in the Philippines. They identified and listed all relevant data elements within their data sources, and mapped them to corresponding OCDS fields, ensuring complete and accurate data mapping.
This activity was conducted as part of activities funded by the United States’ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs under the COVID-19 Anti-Corruption Response and Recovery Project.
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