On August 22-24, some 500 participants including Bids and Awards Committees (BAC), BAC Secretariats, BAC Technical Working Groups, Budget Officers, Procurement/Management Offices, Department Heads, and End Users from all over the region convened at Greenleaf Hotel, General Santos City to participate in the training.

The DBM partnered with the Regional Association of Local Budget Officers (RALBO-XII) in the conduct of the training.

DBM XII Regional Director Akmad Usman said the training was held “considering na matagal-tagal na rin na hindi naka-undertake ng training ang ating mga procurement practitioners, and we have new personnel in charge of procurement assignments who are not too familiar with their duties and responsibilities.”

One of the objectives of the training, as Usman disclosed, is “to strategize and strengthen procurement planning in order to ensure the implementation of Programs, Projects, and Activities (PPAs).”

“We would also want to help the local government units improve their absorptive capacity by implementing their programs on time. So this is one way of knowing how we can strategically perform the procurement functions,” Usman said.

Through this training, Usman hoped the common notion that “procurement tends to hinder the implementation of PPAs” will be addressed and that the “procurement process will be made more efficient and responsive to our needs.”

“We hope that the procurement will be viewed as an enabler of the implementation of PPAs and not as a hindrance,” Usman said.

Usman stressed the importance of good procurement “kasi kapag hindi maganda yung procurement or specifications, we cannot expect that the outcome is good,” he added.

“We have to do good procurement because good procurement results to a good outcome,” Usman said. (Jori Mae R. Samillano/SARANGANI PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE)