Authors: Barajas, J.R., Aspra, N., Gealone, P.J., Lucero, A., Padua, O., Ramos, M.
Motivated by ensuring transparency, fairness, and efficiency in public procurement at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of engineers and faculty from Bicol Region (Region 5) in the Philippines collected, digitized, and analyzed public procurement data to inform the COVID-19 response of select Local Governments in the country.
Highlights of the Report:
• On average, only 2 out of 10 LGU contracts have been awarded in 2020.
• For every Php1 spent, approximately Php1 remains unspent in the procurement of goods and services made by LGUs.
• A total of Php481 billion were distributed across all LGUs in the country for 2020 but only 10% of this budget was allocated for the procurement of drugs and medicines. 40% of this budget went to construction projects.
• Excluding LGU contracts not posted in the PhilGEPS website, only Php10 billion (2.16% of the total LGU budget) was allocated for COVID- 19 related contracts.
• An equivalent amount of Php720 million was potentially lost from 786 LGU contracts flagged as irregular.
• Audit findings for LGUs were primarily centered on directing accountable officers to comply to documentary requirements mandated by existing circulars, memorandums, and Philippine laws.
• A logistic regression model with an accuracy of 91.29% was developed to identify contracts that are potentially irregular.
Short Summary of the Report:
From examination of 296,220 local government unit contracts, this project was able to develop a logistic regression model capable of predicting potentially irregular LGU contracts posted on the PhilGEPS website for the fiscal year 2020 at an accuracy of 91.29%. Validation of the model using metrics derived from the confusion matrix revealed that the developed model had a recall score of 1.0 and a precision score of 0.029. While the precision of the model may be low, the high recall score is deemed more important in this use-case since it would be more costly for an LGU to miss out on irregular contracts. Overall, the developed prediction model is seen to be highly beneficial as a decision support tool for LGUs since this could potentially narrow down the number of awarded LGU contracts to be legally reviewed resulting in a faster turnover of review cycles conducted within a given fiscal year.
The team’s collected datasets are available for download in the OCDex open data portal, attribution to the authors and contributors is required for use.
Are you interested in this report? Do reach out to us at learning@layertechlab.com so that we can directly connect you with the authors, as well as the documentations they submitted.
(This article and the manuscript were submitted by the research team and may be updated in the future)
Education has always been a “primary commodity” in the Philippines. With the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act 10931), State Universities and Colleges (SUC) in the country are now mandated to provide free education to all tertiary students enrolled in their programs. Because of this, about 3.2 million college students were reported to enroll in the year 2018 alone [1] and this number is expected to double due to the implementation of the said law.
The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic to Tertiary Education
The current COVID-19 has crippled the delivery of tertiary education in the country. Nationwide suspension of classes from all levels was hence declared as a mitigation measure to control and contain the spread of COVID-19 across all regions in the country. As a result, a temporary academic freeze has been widely observed from March 2020 until July 2020. This has been the case since various SUCs in the country are still addressing the unresolved dilemma of balancing safety and delivery of quality education to all SUC stakeholders upon resumption of classes in August 2020.
The COVID-19 Challenge to Resumption of Classes
With the sense of urgency to resume all classes despite the COVID-19 situation in the country, it has been widely suggested that face-to-face classes be shifted to online modes of learning this August 2020 [2]. This proposed transition, however, has been met with a huge resistance by various faculty, administrative staff, and college students. In the banner “#NoStudentLeftBehind”, online classes have been dubbed as “anti-poor” and “education solely for the privileged” [3].
As recent facts stated, only 17% of college students have been reported to have the capacity to connect to the internet wherein only 5% of such students have stable internet connectivity at home [3]. With these cited facts, it is expected that enrollment to SUCs this academic year would plunge to at least 70% [4]. Shifting then to purely online modes of learning this August 2020, hence, may not be feasible given the present situation of college students in the country.
Readiness of College Students for Online Learning – The Case of Bicol Region
Through the research grant given by Layertech Software Labs, Inc. and Hivos – People Unlimited, a group of faculty researchers from Bicol University College of Engineering (BUCENG) conducted a feasibility study solely focusing on this present dilemma. The capacity of SUCs and their students, hence, to undertake this proposed transition to online classes this August 2020 were thus reported to be comprehensively studied. In a pilot study conducted in the nine (9) SUCs in Region V, 160 (about 60%) of the 242 college students who willingly participated in a survey conducted from June-July 2020 were reported to have a monthly household income below PHP25,000. Even prior to the pandemic, about 60% of these students largely rely on cellular phones to accomplish academic tasks given to them and this represented a recurring monthly expense of PHP1,000 on cellular data alone. It was also reported that this observed expense is expected to at least double when online classes are implemented this August 2020. With these facts, it is without a doubt that these less privileged college students will have the most disadvantage if a purely online mode of learning is implemented upon the resumption of classes this August 2020.
Assessment of SUC EATing patterns – The Case of Bicol Region
With these described evidences, enabling college students to undertake the proposed online transition would then largely rely on the capacity of SUCs to deliver quality education through the said modes of learning this August 2020.
With the goal of assessing the nine (9) SUCs in the Bicol Region within the context of Education Access in Tenders (EAT), the same group of researchers from BUCENG looked closely into the information technology (IT) related procurement activities of such SUCs from the period 2016-2020. Upon a comprehensive evaluation of the collected contracts, these researchers reported two categories classifying the capacity of SUCs in Bicol Region to successfully implement the proposed online transition, namely “fully capable” and “partially capable”. “Fully capable” SUCs were reported to have largely invested on computer servers, internet coverage and bandwidth, library and learning managements systems, subscription to online databases, and acquisition of software for research and instructional use. These capabilities, as reported by these researchers, corresponded to an equivalent investment amounting to PHP241.19 million.
In contrast, while “partially capable” SUCs were reported to be to financially secure such investments, no relevant awarded IT tenders from 2016-2020 necessary to ensure effective implementation of the proposed online transition were found for such SUCs.
Collectively, seven (7) of the nine (9) SUCs in Bicol Region were seen to be “fully capable” of implementing online classes this August 2020. Though these reported findings implied that the Bicol Region as a whole is seen to effectively implement the proposed online transition, the EATing patterns of the remaining two (2) SUCs which cater to the majority of at least 3000 enrolled college students in the region indicated that much still needs to be done to ensure all college students, regardless of privilege, be given a fair and equal access to quality tertiary education. The researchers then strongly recommended that SUCs classified as “partially capable” benchmark on the IT related procurement strategies that of “fully capable” SUCs.
(This article is submitted by the research team and may be updated in the future.)
The COVID-19 pandemic has largely affected local government units (LGU) in the Philippines, guven the continuous rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases within their respective areas of jurisdiction. In mid-June 2020 alone for example, a spike in the COVID-19 cases was observed across all regions in the country.
As of July 22, 2020, a total of 72,269 confirmed COVID-19 cases has been reported, of which 46,803 cases are classified as active [1]. It is therefore imperative for the LGUs to immediately contain this spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases to prevent further spread of infection in their areas.
Possible Cause of Recent Spike in COVID-19 Cases
With the sudden implementation of a nationwide lockdown across all provinces in the Philippines, about 84,000 individuals remained stranded in Metro Manila for the duration of the imposed mitigation measures in the country [2]. In this case, a humanitarian effort to send these locally stranded individuals (LSI) to their respective home provinces was launched.
As the COVID-19 data published daily by the Department of Health indicated [1], the recent spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases mid-June 2020 could be linked to the return of LSIs to their respective home provinces.
Cross-examination of recently published COVID-19 data on regions (i.e. Region V) reporting a significant number of arriving LSIs further supplemented this observation [3]. As a result, there have been reported instances of mismanagement on the containment protocols of possible COVID-19 positive cases due to the onset of this described occurrence [4]. Hence, there is then a need to assess the capacity of LGUs to properly manage the arrivals of possible COVID-19 positive LSIs while ensuring that the arriving individuals are not discriminated and properly received according to the required medical protocols .
Capacity of LGUs to ACT on Arriving LSIs
Through a research grant given by Layertech Software Labs, Inc. and Hivos – People Unlimited, a group of faculty researchers from Bicol University College of Engineering looked closely into this present dilemma. Using COVID-19 related procurement data and officially press released COVID-19 data for the case of Region V, a system classifying the capacity of LGUs in the said region to accommodate, contain, and treat (ACT) arriving LSIs was formulated.
Under the developed system, three general LGU classifications were then derived namely, “low”, “moderate”, and “high”.
LGUs classified under the “high” category were reported to have at least three (3) hospitals and at least 10,000 PPEs readily available for ACTing on the arrival of possible COVID-19 positive LSIs. This then implied according to the researchers that LGUs categorized as “high” are the most equipped on ACTing on arriving LSIs. On the other hand, “moderate” LGUs were reported to have 1-2 hospitals readily available and a significantly low number of active COVID-19 cases within their respective areas of jurisdiction while “low” LGUs were also reported to have 1-2 hospitals within their vicinity but their active COVID-19 cases were relatively higher than that of “moderate” and “high” LGUs. In this perspective as cited by the researchers, LGUs (i.e. Oas, Albay) classified into “moderate” or “low” categories are highly advised to exercise due scrutiny and adhere to stringent health protocols while ensuring LSIs are not discriminated upon their arrival.
With the validation studies done on the case of Region V, this developed classification system is indeed seen to be helpful in providing data-driven insights that will specifically aid decision-makers on creating policies for proper management on the arrival of such individuals.
25 students from Bicol University College of Science – Computer Science and IT Department, and students from Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation, Inc., joined the two-day Datathon on September 4-5, 2019 at Bicol University College of Science Laboratory. The event is facilitated by Layertech Labs, with the help of Bicol University CS- CSIT and SLTCFI, supported by Hivos.
In 10 hours, students learned basics of the R Environment, Basic Data Scraping and Data Analytics techniques. The students were made to form teams of 3 or 4, with a procuring entity of their choice. Using R, the students were able to scrape official Philippine procurement data from Philippine Government E-Procurement System (PhilGEPS), clean and standardize the datasets, before visualizing them into graphs.
At the end of theDatathon, the teams presented their findings before a panel of judges from: Department of ICT Luzon Cluster 3, Bicol University CS-CSIT, SLTCFI, and Gayon Bicol Civil Society Organization.
The judges declared the final winner, team “Paste Copy”, for analyzing Department of Education Region 5’s procurement efficiency, focusing on procurement of school supplies in the region’s public schools.
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