Cebu City Hall consultants won’t be able to collect their honorarium of P18, 000 per month, for now.
This after Barug Team Rama Councilors passed a resolution on Tuesday to require legislative consultants to submit a certificate of registration from the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before making any money claims.
Section 54.6 of the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act require government consultants to register with PhilGEPS that functions as the “single and centralized electronic portal for all procurement opportunities.”
R.A. 9184 mandates that all procurement for Goods and General Support Services, Civil Works or Infrastructure Projects and Consulting Services must be posted with the system.
“We can’t waive what’s written in the law. If the PhilGEPS registration is needed, we have to comply (with it) even if they (consultants) have been engaged (in City Hall services) in the past year,” said Team Rama Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia.
Each of the city’s 16 councilors are entitled to have at least one consultant, but Mayor Tomas Osmeña did not authorize the hiring of consultants for opposition councilors from July to December.
Councilor Margot Osmeña of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) said that they were unaware of the PhilGEPS requirement when they hired their consultants early this year.
Osmeña said that in the past, City Hall consultants were hired even without asking for PhilGEPS registration.
Councilor Sisinio Andales, another BOPK ally, said that the implementation of the law should not be made retroactive.
The revised IRR of the R.A. 9184 was passed in August 2016 and took effect 60 days later.
Garcia argued that the law will have to take effect even if BOPK councilors are unaware of its existence.
However, no one from among the councilors know exactly how many of their consultants have PhilGEPS registration.
All the 16 councilors present in Tuesday’s session agreed to pass a resolution asking the City Accounting Office to furnish them with a listing of all city consultants and a proper identification on who among them have PhilGEPS registration.