Strengthening the Capacity of the Procurement Service in Implementing the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System Strengthening the capacity of the Procurement Service in implementing the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS).  To support the Procurement Service in the implementation of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System, PhilGEPS, and ensure its acceptability for procurement in projects assisted by multilateral development banks (MDBs).  The proposed IDF for PhilGEPS will support the implementation of the Procurement Law's mandate for transparency and modernization of the public procurement system, thus, contributing to the reduction of procurement corruption. This is the ultimate objective of the Procurement Reform Law, as an anti-corruption measure.  The Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA, RA9184) mandated the use of PhilGEPs as the single, centralized electronic portal for all government agencies in the procurement of common-use goods.  PhilGEPs is also meant to serve as a central portal providing the primary source of information on the status of procurement of other goods and general support services, civil works, and consulting services.  After a year of implementation of the new PhilGEPS, the most notable issues that have arisen are problems and delays associated with the creation and posting of awards notices and the need for additional training.  While access to the system is not limited, not all agencies of the government submit information to PhilGEPS, or avail themselves of its services, particularly in the posting of information on contract awards.  A pilot electronic procurement system had been established in Nov. 2000, with the assistance of CIDA, but there have been problems with the system of awards because suppliers need to register in the system in order to participate in the bidding process and receive an award.  In some cases, suppliers participated in the bids through a manual process and were subsequently neither identified in the electronic system nor could they be identified after the bid had closed.  Whereas the pilot system supported the issuance of multiple awards for different lots of a bid without any restrictions on the structure of the original notices, the new system requires the agency to identify multiple lots in the original notice upfront in order to assign multiple awards to the different lots at the time of award.  In view of the importance of the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the conduct of public procurement through the use of information and communications technology, a proposal for an IDF grant financing is hereby being made to help strengthen the capacity of the Procurement Service in the implementation of PhilGEPs.  However, as the magnitude of the work involved is such that not all tasks/activities can be funded from the IDF grant, the work proposed to be funded from the IDF grant is geared more towards the institutionalization of the system, and the Procurement Service has taken these into consideration in the request for funding.  The possibility of tapping the Korea trust fund for other tasks have been discussed with the Asian Development Bank, but nothing concrete has resulted to date. The IDF focuses on institutional development and strengthening, and the project is in reality strengthening of PhilGEPS Unit of Procurement Service as the only electronic Government Procurement in the country.  The Korean Grant, however is not focused on institutional strengthening but more on capacity building or training. Moreover, the Korean TF, altough untied, would be keen to demonstrate Korean development experience in IT and other fields.  The PhilGEPS is modeled after the Canadian eGP, and that would not match. There is no duplication of activities between the IDF and the proposed ADB Korean TF for funding purposes. The latter will fund the downstream activities.