By Joann Santiago
MANILA, Jan. 17 (PNA) — An executive of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) lauded the improvements in the Philippines procurement system saying it is one of the best in Asia.
“They match very well with what the government is trying to do in terms of governance,” said Sean O’ Sullivan, ADB First Director Generation for Operations Service and Financial Management, at the sidelines of the three-day Good Governance Summit 2014 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) that ended Friday.
He explained that the multilateral agency is involved with government projects that are mostly not procurement-intensive.
He, however, stressed that the agency is helping the government in many ways on the assessment of the procurement system.
He noted that in terms of managing projects the country is “quite sophisticated”.
He said what needs to be done now is to consolidate all the reforms because the arrangements and the procurement platform among others are now in place.
“What we have is good and it’s just further consolidating those achievements,” he stressed.
Compare to other countries in the region, the ADB executive said the Philippines is also “quite sophisticated in terms of the procurement reforms.”
“It’s certainly up there with other up and middle income countries,” he added. (PNA)