DBM-Ombudsman pact can hasten graft probes

MANILA, Philippines — Investigators from the Office of the Ombudsman may no longer face unnecessary delays when they need to examine data on the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and check government contracts in real time for possible irregularities.

An agreement with the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) grants the Ombudsman “faster access” to procurement records on PhilGEPS, eliminating delays caused by manual document requests.

A data sharing agreement (DSA) signed on Tuesday at the DBM office in Malacañang allows for “interoperability” of database systems between the DBM and antigraft body without violating data privacy laws, officials said.

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“The whole point of this agreement is to make the world smaller for those who abuse the system,” Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said.

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PhilGEPS is the centralized electronic portal that serves as a source of information on government procurement. Since the official launch in 2006, the general public may view information on PhilGEPS by creating an account, but limited to such details such as the owners of companies, the bids made and the contracts’ worth, among others.

READ: Survey: Public concern over graft, corruption in PH highest since 2021

The Ombudsman-DBM agreement, however, allows investigators to go further and follow procurement trails, connect related information, identify suspicious patterns, and verify evidence that can be used in prosecutions.

Prior to the agreement, an Ombudsman investigator seeking procurement records—such as bid notices, notices of award, contracts or supplier registration documents—still needed to file a formal request and wait for its transmittal.

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‘Read-only’ access

This could delay the investigation and potentially compromise the overall effort to prosecute those behind anomalous contracts, Remulla said.

The DSA grants authorized investigators “secure, role-based and read-only” access to a comprehensive set of procurement data on the portal. These include datasets on supplier and merchant registration, uploaded general information sheets, beneficial ownership information, buyer profiles, participation history and life cycle documents such as bids, awards, and contracts.

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But officials stressed that access to the data will still be subject to privacy, security, logging and monitoring controls under the Data Privacy Act and related laws.

In effect, the agreement shortened that “gap” on access by allowing investigators to see procurement records together, which is crucial in any inquiry, Remulla said.

“When the Ombudsman sees the whole procurement record, relationships emerge. The same names, the same addresses, the same patterns,” he said, seeing the DSA as a deterrent in itself. “It makes it more difficult for contractors and their conspirators in the government to hide their illegal activities.”

“To anyone who still thinks our procurement system can be gamed: understand that the Ombudsman is now looking at the same data you are submitting,” he said. “Every document you upload to PhilGEPS is a document we can read. Act accordingly.”

Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon said faster access would help investigators obtain evidence while maintaining safeguards over government data.

“Right information, to the right institution, at the right time,” De Leon said. “When it comes to accountability, speed matters—but evidence matters even more. There must be proof. There must be a basis.”

The agreement comes amid ongoing graft investigations or filed court cases involving multibillion-peso flood control projects.

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“The agreement means that when investigators need relevant procurement records for authorized official purposes, they will no longer have to depend solely on the traditional process of separately requesting documents and waiting for records to be transmitted,” the DBM said in a statement. /cb