OCDex Portal: A Data-Driven Approach in Analyzing Procurement Process of Community-Based HIV/AIDS Advocacy Related Items

Abstract

The objective of this study is to use government procurement open data to inform Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of the best possible strategies to optimize, and maximize their advocacy work. In this paper, pre-processing of the Department of Health Region (DOH) 5 procurement datasets from 2016- 2018 are conducted, collected from the official Philippine Government E-Procurement System (PhilGEPS) repository. The visualizations and calculations showed average prices of HIV-related commodities, procurement categories, average procurement timelines and patterns, procurement allocation per province, which CSOs, represented by Gayon Bicol, may use to improve their crafting of proposal and monitoring of service delivery in their HIV-related grassroots advocacy work in the province of Albay. The data also showed posting of Notice to Proceed in PhilGEPS by approximately 16 days earlier than Publication of Award, for the entire Department of Health (DOH) Region 5, and 108 days early on HIV- related transactions, which is not within the compliance standards as stated in the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) law, thus, a point for improvement for the agencies concerned.