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.
Conducting this research was both a challenging and fulfilling task. With the alarming health issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is both in a social and economic state of emergency. Life and work are on a standstill as many of us are deeply affected by the COVID lockdown. In spite of its challenges of conducting face to face interviews or data gathering, the experience proved to be a rewarding experience for us for we know that this is a significant contribution to humanity’s collective efforts in combating COVID-19. It is for these reasons that we feel the need for this research.
With the number of COVID-19 cases increasing exponentially, a large number of people are getting infected worldwide, in the Philippines as well as the Bicol Region. In this health crisis, availability of sufficient life-saving goods and services such as testing is essential in the fight against the COVID-19. Hence, supporting the health response including the procurement, allocation and management of essential health facilities and products ensuring that utilization of such limited resources are being managed efficiently is crucial. It is in this context that the study was conducted to analyze available data from the Department of Health (DOH) Data Drop (DOH, 2020) and DOH Regional Office V (DOH-RO V) to evaluate how existing resources are being managed.
The study mainly aims to determine and analyze the procurement transactions made by the Department of Health Regional Office V on testing COVID-19 cases in the Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (BRDRL). Particularly, this intends to provide statistics on the specimens processed by the Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory. It also assessed the procurement management of the resources being purchased by the DOH for use of BRDRL to facilitate the COVID-19 testing and identified the procurement needs of BRDRL through DOH that may further enhance their operation on specimen testing.
How did we go Through the Process?
The study employed the data analytics methods by observing the steps as depicted in Figure 1 such as data scraping, data pre-processing, data processing and analysis and data validation. The evolution from data sources to analysis and validation of results passed through these steps.
Data Scraping. Data collection was done by scraping data from the DOH Data Drop dated July 11, 2020. Specifically data on testing aggregates was utilized with 3,781 rows and 16 fields. In relation to COVID-19 procurement details, data were provided by the Department of Health Regional Office V. Said data was composed of PR No, particulars, Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC), Contract Amount and Status of approximately 109 procurement activities from March until May 2020.
Data Pre-processing. Data cleaning of data scraped included filtering testing data from the BRDRL. 94 rows were filtered from the Data Drop with reporting dates from April 8, 2020 until July 10, 2020. Fields found relevant on the analysis of aggregate testing data were the facility_name, report_date, daily_output_positive_individuals, daily_output_negative_individuals daily_output_unique_individuals, daily_output_samples_tested, cumulative_unique_individuals, cumulative_samples_tested, and the remaining_available_tests. Other irrelevant fields and with NULL entry were either corrected or discarded. For the DOH RO V procurement data, only COVID-19 related activities were considered from the procurement data from March to May 2020.
Data Processing and analysis. After the completion of data pre-processing, the data were sorted, summarized and visualized. A plot of the specimens tested daily at BRDRL was visualized by plotting the daily_output_unique_individuals values versus the daily_output_samples_tested. A graph of the cumulative number of specimens tested daily at BRDRL was likewise prepared by plotting the cumulative_unique_individuals daily values versus that of the cumulative_samples_tested. Further, the BRDRL daily testing results was plotted with the scraped values for daily_output_positive_individuals, and the daily_output_negative_individuals. Finally, the remaining PCR testing kits of BRDRL was visualized with the scraped values for the remaining_available_tests. On the other hand, the procurement activities provided by the DOH ROV undergone processing by categorizing each activity according to its purpose, then computing for the sum and percentages needed for analysis.
Data Validation. The results of the study were sent to DOH ROV for feedback and validation before presenting the results to various stakeholders through a public forum. Comments and suggestions were taken into consideration. Consultation with the procurement personnel of DOH ROV shall be made for further validation of results. Further improvement shall be considered on the processing of next iteration of the study.
What were the salient findings found in the conduct of the study?
Statistics on the specimens processed by the Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory;
Figure 2 presents the total specimens processed daily with results which could either be positive, negative, equivocal or invalid as well as sum of all unique individuals tested resulting positive or negative released from 6pm the previous day to 6pm of the reporting date. BRDRL started with a testing capacity of 34 samples per day since the laboratory had only one PCR machine. May 16-25, 2020 has zero samples tested since testing at the Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (BRDRL) for coronavirus disease 2019 stopped when Typhoon “Ambo” damaged the exhaust duct at the roof of the facility. With the two RT-PCR machines donated by the LGU Legazpi and a private donor, the laboratory in BRDRL can already test 380 to 420 samples per day, but so far 182 is the highest number of total specimens processed in a day, hence testing capacity has not yet been maximized and according to DOH RO V, Bicol has ‘zero backlog’ in COVID-19 testing.
The cumulative number of samples tested which refers to the sum of all specimens tested with validated results from the start of laboratory operation up to the reporting date is presented in figure 3. Further, the cumulative number of unique individuals tested which is the total number of unique individuals who underwent COVID-19 testing, regardless of result, accumulated since the start of operations in the laboratory is likewise presented. It should be noted however, that since an individual may have to undergo the testing more than once, the 2 or more specimen results will only be counted once. As of July 10, a total of 5988 samples and 5629 unique individuals were tested.
Procurement Management of the Resources Being Purchased by the DOH for Use of BRDRL to Facilitate the COVID-19 Testing
The remaining COVID-19 tests that can be conducted by the BRDRL based on the PCR testing kits they currently have is presented in figure 5. It is evident that as of July 10, 2020, 18,865 tests can still be conducted. It implies that there is available testing kits to conduct COVID-19 testing with Bicol having ‘zero backlog’ in testing.
The awarded procurement activities of DOH Regional Office V in relation to COVID-19 is presented in figure 6.
These are the resources being purchased by the DOH for use of BRDRL to facilitate the COVID-19 testing. It is apparent that the biggest procurement cost is on purchase of laboratory supplies followed by conduct of COVID-19 related campaigns, purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), purchase of laboratory equipment and conduct of COVID-19 prevention activities. For laboratory supplies the highest cost is on purchase of the Viral RNA Extraction kit & Consumables with an approved budget contract of approximately 4 million which is used for testing COVID-19 specimens in BRDRL. COVID-19 campaign activities on the other hand refer to placement of Radio/TV Infomercials as well as various signages for COVID-19 response and containment. Procurement of PPE refers to procurement of surgical gowns, surgical masks, goggles, coverall, shoe cover and head cover which are vital in the conduct of the testing procedures. Further, laboratory equipment includes purchase of equipment such as LED Digital Dry Bath / Dry Block Heater and finally, COVID-19 prevention activities includes activities like accommodation or quarantine for health workers and technicians from NCR as well as anti-bacterial fogging/misting treatment to ensure that the workplace is properly disinfected, ventilated, and maintained as part of infection control procedures.
The Procurement Needs of BRDRL through DOH that may Further Enhance their Operation on Specimen Testing
From the identified COVID-19 related procurement activities of DOH RO V, approximately 8.6 Million worth or 77% is already awarded, 2.5 Million which is 23% is waiting for quotation and 41,000 or 0.37% has a quotation that is above the approved budget as presented in figure 7. This shows that most of the requested items to be purchased has been already awarded and that procurement of resources by the DOH Regional Office V for use of BRDRL to facilitate the COVID-19 testing is well managed with Bicol having ‘zero backlog’ in testing and available PCR testing kits. The remaining 23% procurement needs are presented in figure 6.
The procurement needs of BRDRL through DOH Regional Office V to further enhance their operation on Covid-19 specimen testing is presented in figure 8. These are the resources being requested by the DOH for use of BRDRL to facilitate the COVID-19 testing which are either still waiting for quotation or has quotation above the approved budget for the contract. It is evident that the biggest procurement cost is on purchase of laboratory supplies followed by purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), conduct of covid19-related campaigns, purchase of laboratory equipment and repair of Covid-19 laboratory at BRDRL.
Conclusions
Based on the foregoing findings, the study concluded that DOH Regional Office V so far had shown to have managed well their COVID-19 related procurement activities for BRDRL based on data scraped from the DOH Data Drop and procurement data provided by the DOH ROV with Bicol having ‘zero backlog’ in testing and with available PCR testing kits which can be partly attributed to the strong partnership with the LGU of Legazpi City. Other local government units may replicate the partnership of Legazpi City with DOH. Likewise, innovative partnerships with business and civil society are needed since it is a fact that the DOH cannot win the fight in stopping the spread of COVID-19 without the cooperation and support of stakeholders and the public. Early detection and isolation of new COVID-19 cases is critical to managing potential outbreaks, especially as the government is considering gradually lifting quarantine measures. This makes testing all the more vital.
What’s Next?
During an emergency like the COVID-19 crisis, procurement procedures need to be as fast as possible as it adheres to the rules on Negotiated Procurement (Emergency Case) by simplifying its process as stipulated in the GPPB Resolution No. 03- 2020, however, emergency procedures still need to be public and open. Although the Department of Health Regional Office V was able to provide some procurement data as requested, yet, it would have been more beneficial if said data are disclosed publicly online, in the GPPB online portal, or in their website. With this, the study recommends that open procurement data such as the Annual Procurement Plan FY 2020, request for quotation, technical specifications, purchase order, and notice of award be made available to public since it may enable fairer competition among companies, identify red flags, as well as deliver better services for governments and citizens. Publishing data for each step of the contracting process is highly recommended to promote transparency and accountability. COVID-19 procurement strategies need to be rapidly updated to form a global, digital and data-driven plan since how the government manages emergency public procurement will play a major role in how COVID-19 be contained and how many lives can be saved. Finally, it is also suggested for the GPPB to establish an online platform to allow for an online submission and receipt of bids for procurement modalities by all procuring entities.
So what are then the perceived impacts of the study?
The findings of the study could serve as feedback to the Department of Health Regional Office V on their procurement management of the resources used on testing COVID-19 cases in the Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (BRDRL) during this pandemic. Further, the utilization of data analytics in this study could serve as guide to future researchers on the importance of analyzing data sets and how it could give meaning to a simple data, translating data on hand to meaningful stories, thereby building a model for a data-driven decision making. Finally, this could provide an open data accessible to the community members while reinforcing scientific cooperation. Being a researcher requires inspiration, commitment and dedication. Without these, no research shall be accomplished and realized. As Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said and we quote “I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.” Hence, this research will only find its meaning when shared with others and others learned from it.
(This article and the manuscript were submitted by the research team and may be updated in the future)
As of July 22, 2020, a total of 72,269 total COVID-19 cases has been reported, of which 46,803 are still classified as active cases [1]. With this continual rise of COVID-19 cases, it is estimated that this would cost about PHP2.2 trillion economic losses and is equivalent to at least a 2% contraction in the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of the country [2]. As a consequence of this economic loss, about 26% of businesses operating in the country have already closed [3] resulting to about 100,000 Filipinos losing their jobs in the 1st half of 2020 [4] Indeed, there is an immediate need to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country to further mitigate the impact of the said disease to the Filipino people.
Fastracking the Public Procurement Process
The COVID-19 crisis in the country is a race against time. As seen from the success stories of our neighboring ASEAN countries, fast, efficient, and integral procurement played a crucial role in securing a “COVID-free” nationwide status. In response to this sense of urgency brought about the by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) recently issued a series of resolutions to shift current publicly held procurement related to COVID-19 into negotiated procurement (emergency cases) and relax existing guidelines on the submission of vital bid documents [5]-[8]. For instance, expired business or mayor permits and unnotarized bid documents submitted by eligible bidders could already be accepted under these new GPPB issuances.
Challenge on Procurement Integrity and Transparency
While it is necessary to fastrack public procurement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is equally important to ensure integral and transparent implemented procurement processes to protect the interest of the Filipino people. Considered as one of the most vulnerable to corruption especially in this time of an emerging health crisis, relaxation of the imposed regulations is seen to compromise the overall integrity of the present public bidding processes. The acceptance of unnotarized bid documents, for instance, could promulgate misrepresentation on the capacity of an eligible bidder to faithfully undertake any contractual obligations if such barriers are removed.
REACT Risk Indexing System
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. Considering that shortening the time needed in awarding government contracts is of utmost priority, a rapid evaluator and assessor of contractor traits (REACT) risk indexing system was proposed and investigated as an intervening and supplemental tool to aid in upholding the integrity of the presently changed public procurement process on construction and infrastructure tenders related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using historical data periodically published by GPPB, assessment of an eligibility of a contractor based on its previous performance was further simplified by these researchers. Through REACT, three general classification of contractors were reported namely, “low risk”, “moderate risk”, and “high risk”. Contractors that were classified as “low risk” in the proposed risk indexing system were found to be the most eligible as these contractors were reported to have at most an average negative slippage of 7.5%. In accordance to the findings reported by these researchers, it was further suggested that necessary precautions and scrutiny be exercised to those contractors that would be classified as “moderate risk” and “high risk” contractors since these contractors were found to have an average negative slippage of at least 24.9% which is well beyond the acceptable negative slippage of 15%.
Indeed, as presented in the case study of the proposed REACT risk indexing system to the publicly available historical data of contractors in Region V, the applicability of the proposed system to preserve integrity of the presently relaxed public procurement process has been validated.
With the validation of the efficacy of the proof of concept as reported by the researchers, the proposed REACT risk indexing system is seen to be a plausible data-driven solution in light of the challenges in the public procurement process amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“TEAM BATAG” or Team “Builders And Technology Advocates Group”, our young team from CSO and and Computer Science and IT Students, presents the current issues that the youth are facing, and measures youth participation in governance.
trivia: ‘Batag’ is a bicol word for ‘banana’ pun so not intended! 😀
This is Team BATAG’s presentation at the Datathon2020: Evidence-Based Lobby and Advocacy competition and workshop, held at Bicol University College of Science, February 22-23, 2020.
Follow this page for more updates, as this study gets further substantiated. The contents of this page may be modified, updated, and further substantiated.
“TEAM ANATA”, a mix of advocates and Computer Science and IT Students, presents and discusses how they used data to identify key issues in HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, its urgency, and comes up with data-backed recommendations for government budgeting for HIV-related kits, trainings, and anti-retro-viral drugs.
This is Team Anata’s presentation at the Datathon2020: Evidence-Based Lobby and Advocacy competition and workshop, held at Bicol University College of Science, February 22-23, 2020.
Follow this page for more updates, as this study gets further substantiated. The contents of this page may be modified, updated, and further substantiated.
PhilGEPS releases Philippine procurement datasets in excel format. These are downloadable in their official PHILGEPS OPEN DATA PORTAL.
Below is a mapping Layertech and Partners in Legazpi made to convert PH-based procurement datasets to OCDS format. This is being used by partner researchers, developers, and students to create localized procurement monitoring tools.
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