PhilHealth's failure to renew its subscription to antivirus software was due to its own procurement management decision and not the new government procurement rules, the Government Procurement Policy Board, through its Technical Support Office
said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) failed to renew its antivirus software licenses last year, making its computer system outdated and vulnerable to cyberattacks due to new government procurement rules from the GPPB.

In a statement, GPPB stated that the GPPB's Resolution No. 05-2022, which Santos cited as the cause of the failure, applies only to online subscriptions where there is no locally available provider and can only be purchased directly online using a credit card.

GPPB-TSO added that a locally available provider pertains to any supplier or distributor, whether local or foreign, authorized to do business in the Philippines.

"As PhilHealth earlier stated that they have an existing subscription for an antivirus software. This means that they have an existing contract with a locally available supplier, which means that the cited GPPB Resolution will not apply," GPPB-TSO said.

"Hence, PhilHealth is authorized to conduct Public Bidding or adopt any of the alternative methods of procurement, as may be applicable, depending on their project requirements, or, at their option, avail the Guidelines on the Renewal of Regular and Recurring Services issued through GPPB Resolution No. 06-2022," the GPPB-TSO added.

GPPB-TSO underscored that the decision on the project requirements and procurement modality to be adopted is based on the sound procurement management decision of PhilHealth as the procuring entity.

It added that the procurement rules, particularly the modalities available, are not limiting and are designed to enable the adoption of the most appropriate modality given the requirements of the procuring entity, which they, themselves, set in their Bidding Documents.

"Rest assured that the communication lines of the GPPB are always open for our colleagues in government, as well as our other stakeholders, should they have questions or needed information for purposes of clarification to avoid similar confusion," GPPB said.

"We also conduct procurement trainings, similar to what we have been providing Philhealth, for various national government agencies, GOCCs, and other institutions, to help equip their personnel with the relevant and necessary skills and knowledge in procuring goods and services," it added.