[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1131, 204], "category": "Text", "text": "mechanisms” and to strengthen victim legal protection and assistance, as well as coordination among the justice actors."}, {"bbox": [97, 237, 218, 263], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**Corruption:**"}, {"bbox": [97, 265, 1132, 407], "category": "Text", "text": "In Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2022 Philippines gained one place to 116 out of 180 countries, after it had dropped in 2021. Fight against corruption is insufficiently enforced by the weak and non-cooperative law enforcement agencies. Given the focus on growth and private sector investment, the current Government is now willing to introduce effective anti-corruption measures, including its policies and strategies in relation to public expenditure and public procurement."}, {"bbox": [97, 434, 1132, 565], "category": "Text", "text": "Government spending on capital outlays (COs) and most of maintenance, operating, and other expenses (MOOE) fall under public procurement in the Philippines and for the last two years, these expenditure categories account for an average of 60 percent of the total budget or USD43 billion. The recent spike in CO budget is triggered by the government's ambitious 'Build, Build, Build Program' with a total planned budget of USD171 billion under the current administration."}, {"bbox": [97, 594, 1132, 878], "category": "Text", "text": "The Philippine Public Procurement System has undergone several reforms during the last two decades, which yielded significant achievements toward strengthening its legal and institutional framework particularly through the adoption of the public procurement Republic Act (RA) in January 2003, establishment of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) as the public procurement regulatory and normative body, introduction of the Agency Procurement Compliance and Performance Indicators (APCPI) system for periodic monitoring and evaluation of performance, and establishment of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) - the e-procurement system for publication of bidding opportunities and contract award information. However, many challenges remain to be addressed in further reforms, especially with respect to eligibility and rules of participation, procurement approaches for optimal value for money, independent complaints review body, and PhilGEPS operational functionality and efficiency."}, {"bbox": [97, 909, 1132, 1222], "category": "Text", "text": "The public procurement reform priorities need to be aligned with the immediate development challenges of the government post COVID-19 to improve results and bring savings of public money while following principles of transparency, integrity, and accountability. Some of the key incentives for the Philippines further procurement reforms were identified as (a) capitalizing on the substantial and consistent reform efforts over the last two decades toward improving and aligning the country procurement legal and regulatory framework with international standards and practices and also by fast-tracking digitalization for the entire procurement process, (b) translating Green Public Procurement Strategy into procurement documents and technical specification as part of Sustainable Public Procurement Agenda including use of LCC to achieve value for money, (c) modernizing single procurement portal (PhilGEPS), and (d) harvesting saving potentials as shown by Data Analytics of 2019 which estimated that the Philippines could save between 26 percent and 29 percent of the total procurement spent through designing and implementing better procurement strategies and policies."}, {"bbox": [86, 1682, 193, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 9 of 32"}]