Conceptual Framework

II. Conceptual Framework The Model as shown in Figure 3 and which the milieu of public procurement management is shall take off from the current system which is being set off by standard procedures mandated by the national government and those similar measures initiated by the City Government. Since these are given measures, what shall be done is just to see to it that the contemporary patterns of systems and procedures in public spending shall be conscientiously followed. Moreover, the latter shall be nurtured through regular assessment of their applicability over time. As such, there shall be developed coping mechanisms in order that the adaptability of these patterns of systems and procedures will not wane over the years. Such coping mechanisms can be expressed in terms of the operational control structures as discussed herein.

After instituting a solid foundation

for the City’s public procurement system, there shall be ensured the development of a culture of responsible and accountable public spending as the building block of public service delivery. At this level, it shall be noted that it is not at all learning the intricacies of the technical aspect of the process. That, the procurement process is not at all times setting up of standard rules and procedures and seeing to it that these are strictly followed. In view hereof, there shall be integrated the technical, human and cultural dimensions in the procurement process. By technical dimension, it refers not necessarily on how the transactions are to be handled for these are given variables that logically takes place in any operation, be it immediately or later. What is being emphasized here is the capability to know how the transaction accumulates at a specific period of time and how to manage it. The tool here is a regular time and motion analysis and studying the

procurement environment that include the requisition patterns of the beneficiaries of goods and services. This is to know better the perspective of the set of transactions at that particular period of time. Actually, this is not a hard thing to do considering that existing records will help much. Simply stated, this means that those handling the processing of procurement documents shall not be locked up with the voluminous transactions that may be mounting up over time which make them just contented with doing clerical works in the processing tasks, a scenario that is not alien to any procurement process. The fact is that we can rarely observe procurement processing personnel knowing exactly when a particular transaction happens and the time element that has to be considered before this has to be consummated. On the other hand, the human dimension speaks of personalities involved who have diverse levels of appreciation as to the significance of the procurement process. They belong to different groups that form part of the so-called Public Procurement Institutions, namely: the requesting parties, officials and entities deciding on the worthiness to consummate a transaction, procurement processing personnel, suppliers of goods and services and internal control entities. Likewise, the cultural dimension acts as the soul of the procurement system. Its essence can be felt in the long term where a tradition shall be built. This tradition speaks of value systems among those involved, like the requesting parties, procurement processing personnel, approving Officials, internal control personnel and of course the suppliers.

Since time immemorial, the view of public procurement always boils down to graft and corruption. It is high time now that this shall be transformed into a critical component of governance that is central to its operations. That, it is its blood that gives life to the efforts of public services delivery. Unless this notion is developed, time and again, public procurement will still be viewed as nothing but an avenue to generate money for personal gains. However, when the tradition of responsible and accountable public spending is developed, there will observe pride and sense of satisfaction among those involved in the process and that is tantamount to a heroic act of doing a critical task for the general public to be emancipated from the bondage of poverty and the ills of the environment. Because of that feeling of satisfaction, they can see such accomplishment though it happened away beyond their horizon. This, actually is oftentimes overlooked under the present state because the satisfaction level ends at the time the goods and services are delivered and accepted by the requesting parties. What will make this conceptual turnaround will be the cultural aspect which will enrich the process with dynamism, vibrant and highly responsive in character. With the foregoing critical components in place, there shall be delivered public services to the people, either directly or through government instrumentalities that are mandated by existing laws. However, for the latter to be effective and efficient in the delivery of these services they have to be adequately equipped with goods and services appropriate to their levels. In both instances, provisions of goods and services are undertaken through the procurement process.

3.2 Institution of Public Procurement Management Paradigms There shall be instituted a public procurement management paradigms. This shall illustrate how the model shall be translated into actions, its context of which shall be based on the operational framework. The paradigm shall encompass the following: • Public Procurement Management While the public procurement model refers to a structure of variables significant to related processes, public procurement management is what will make the model work which takes off from the existing system characterized by national standard procedures and local operating procedures passing through critical stages like instituting patterns of systems and procedures and eventually developing a culture of responsible and accountable public spending and ends up at the stage where the post-procurement dimension had already taken its course. • Public Procurement Environment At the local level this refers to the personalities involved and their public procurement practices based on existing system and procedures as mandated. Also include policy changes that maybe initiated at the national or international levels or by the local administration. Likewise, this involves the norms and standards being practiced of greater magnitude by a larger population of practitioners and so with the requisition patterns of the beneficiaries of goods and services. • Service Delivery Management

This is founded upon the bedrock of Public Procurement. Here, services are not only acquired, delivered and accepted by the clientele. There goes with it the fundamentals of management from conceptualization to impact evaluation. By this, it is ensured that the use of funds in the in the acquisition of goods and services for the people will be maximized and rationalized and by virtue of this principle, the integrating factor of service delivery management is public spending. • Technical Dimension in Public Procurement Refers not necessarily on how the transactions are to be handled for these are given variables that logically takes place in any operation. What is being emphasized here is the capability to know how the transaction accumulate at a specific period of time and how to manage it. The tool here is a regular time and motion analysis and studying the procurement environment. This is

to know better the perspective of the set of

transactions at that particular period of time •

Human Dimension in Public Procurement

Refers to personalities involved who have diverse levels of appreciation as to the significance of the procurement process. They belong to different groups that form part of the so-called Public Procurement Institutions, namely: the requesting parties, officials and entities deciding on the worthiness to consummate a transaction, procurement processing personnel, suppliers of goods and services and internal control entities. •

Cultural Dimension in Public Procurement

Acts as the soul of the procurement system. Its essence can be felt in the long term where a tradition shall be built. This tradition speaks of value systems among those

involved, like the requesting parties, procurement processing personnel, approving Officials, internal control personnel and of course the suppliers. • Culture of Responsible and Accountable Public Spending Refers to building a tradition of public expenditure patterns that is responsive in perspective and embodies the ideals of transparency and confidentiality and quality handling of transactions characterized by fair and competitive prices and timely deliveries. Hence, regardless of whoever takes the place of those who practice the system will end up practitioners themselves. Otherwise, if they insist on infusing their own systems they will be isolating themselves since they will be breaking norms and standards • Post-procurement dimension This has something to do with the formulation of an analysis as to compliance to procedures of the procurement process which is based on those mandated by existing laws. These also include analysis on price level, quality and timeliness of deliveries and effects and impacts to the general public and office operations in the context of strengthening their capabilities for their service delivery efforts. These post procurement undertakings is aimed to institute appropriate measures to

further strengthen the

process. • Transparency and confidentiality dimension Basically, trust and confidence are what will make the procurement transactions reliable and free from doubts. Hence, it is imminent that there shall be established

mechanisms as to when records of transactions are made transparent and when their confidentiality shall be held. This shall be in place since these will boil down to trust and confidence building among those involved in the procurement process, the requesting parties, processing personnel, approving officials and on the part of the suppliers upon which there will be obtained a productive competitions in terms of price and quality of the desired goods and services. • Public Procurement Institutions This refers to the different groups of involved personalities in the procurement processes, such as, the requesting parties, officials and entities deciding on the worthiness to consummate a transaction, procurement processing personnel, suppliers of goods and services and internal control entities. As such, they shall not work as individuals participating in a procurement process attending only to their respective tasks. On the contrary, they shall look upon these tasks as components of a larger task and hence, they shall regard themselves as an institution mandated to discharge these tasks and hence, highly accountable to any implication thereof, whether favorable or detrimental in characteristics This is in view of the fact that in the pursuance of procurement-related undertakings, there are interrelated and intertwining series of activities which involved different groups of personalities so that working individually shall never be an option that any one in the process may consider. Otherwise, they shall look forward to working together, complementing and coordinating with one another to attain what could be considered as a procurement system that is beyond reproach.

Boosting the foregoing are the technical dimensions which in the context of this study refers to the norms and standards set by the policy makers from the national and local levels which from to time are being reviewed to meet the prevailing of the process. With all the operational environment of the model properly identified and with a program in place, there shall be developed a culture of responsible and accountable public spending in the City which refers to building a tradition of public expenditure patterns that is responsive in perspective and embodies the ideals of transparency and confidentiality and quality handling of transactions characterized by fair and competitive prices and timely deliveries. Hence, regardless of whoever takes the place of those who practice the system will end up practitioners themselves. Otherwise, if they insist on infusing their own systems they will be isolating themselves since they will be breaking norms and standards. This is expected since it takes long periods of time to develop new concepts to replace old and even obsolete ones. The more its difficult, if the latter are proven to be effective over time. With the impending operationalization of the Systems Model which will maintain the responsiveness of the public procurement in the City, hopefully it will be in a position to be considered as one the first local government units in the country to develop a model for its public procurement system that can perhaps make it as a destination for research by other local government units. For one, being a newly-constituted local government unit, it can take pride to being in the forefront in a paradigm transformation in this critical area of governance. At any rate, it is the first City to have been established out of merging three (3) fifth (5 th) class

municipalities upon which it can lay claim to be the first and only City whose official name already bears its vision that makes its residents familiar with.