The government has so far saved P10 million this year from the procurement of motor vehicles through the eMarketplace online platform, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Monday.

"In the eMarketplace, if I may share, so far, in our sales for the motor vehicles, we have noted around P10 million in savings already," Procurement System-DBM Executive Director Genmaries Entredicho-Caong said in a briefing at the sidelines of the East Asia and the Pacific International Public Procurement Conference held at The Hilton Manila in Pasay City.

"That's the difference between the price of motor vehicles in the eMarketplace versus the market price and their approved budget in the authority to purchase motor vehicles,” she added.

The eMarketplace is one of the many components of the New Government Procurement Act (NGPA), which is designed to modernize the government's procurement process.

It allows agencies to conveniently “add to cart” essential goods and services, ensuring timely and cost-effective transactions.

At present, the eMarketplace allows government agencies to order motor vehicles as part of its pilot program for common-use supplies and equipment (CSE).

Caong said the eMarketplace started receiving orders in January with the first batch of deliveries completed in February.

"As of now, we have 86 orders in the e-marketplace. Around 15 in the 86 were already delivered and the 15 translates into around P31 million of total sales. The total orders of 86 amount to around P80 million," she said.

Caong said the pilot implementation of the eMarketplace will end this month.

"But we have after the end of the pilot implementation, we will report to the Government Procurement Policy Board what is the result of the pilot implementation," she added.

Caong said in the coming months, cloud computing services, airline tickets, and software and licenses will be included in the eMarketplace.

Within the year, the DBM also plans to add in the eMarketplace information and communication technology (ICT) equipment, ink, and printers, and some paper products.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the procurement of the PS-DBM allows the government to save more.

"We see that sometimes, especially with the PS-DBM, they get a lot of savings when they buy in bulk orders. So, eventually we also have fiscal space for other programs and grants. So, that's also important," Pangandaman said.

PNA PHOTO