6,000 suppliers flagged due to lack of ownership report

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said about 6,000 government suppliers with a platinum status risk suspension over non-submission of their beneficial ownership reports to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS).

In a statement on Monday, the DBM said out of the 12,769 PhilGEPS platinum registered corporations this year, only 6,766 have submitted their beneficial ownership documents.

“The disclosure of beneficial ownership is a powerful feature of the new law because it ensures that conflicts of interest in public procurement are avoided. We are closing the doors on corruption and collusion in bidding for government projects,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said.

Under the new government procurement law, “old tricks of name-changing, head-swapping and dummy company owners will no longer work,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.

Procurement Service-DBM (PS-DBM) Executive Director Genmaries S. Entredicho-Caong said non-submission of this document automatically suspends their platinum registration, which is the only eligibility document required from bidders.

The DBM said the Government Procurement Policy Board, through PS-DBM PhilGEPS, with partners such as the World Bank and Open Ownership, is establishing a public online beneficial ownership registry of bidders and an analytical tool prototype to help procuring entities identify red flags and prevent irregularities.

Ms. Entredicho-Caong also noted that based on a 2023 Technical Support Office (TSO) report, it found that 65.8% of bidders have common owners, based on a random sampling of 180 procuring entities.

Meanwhile, the DBM found out that 71.6% of bidders were related to government officials.

PS-DBM earlier canceled PhilGEPS membership of multiple firms linked to the Discaya family, including the St. Gerrard Construction, Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corp., Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante