BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan to enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) in behalf of the local government with the Cordillera office of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for the completion of the 5-storey Baguio City School of Arts and Trades (BCSAT) building.
The resolution authored by Councilors Faustino Olowan, Edgar M. Avila and Benny Bomogao stated there is a need to execute a MOA between TESDA-CAR and the local government through the local chief executive for the latter to implement the project as required by Section 7.3.3 of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act (RA) 9184 otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.
The resolution noted that due to the limitations of TESDA-CAR in its engineering internal capacity, it requested the local government to implement the multi-million project in its behalf given the capability, accessibility and the long established partnership of the said parties.
According to the resolution, in the course of fund sourcing and with the assistance of Senator Joel Villanueva, the BCSAT was granted a fund of P15 million under the 2018 general appropriations act for the completion of the BCSAT building.
Under the provisions of RA 9184, in order to hasten project implementation, procuring entities which may not have the proficiency or capability to undertake a particular procurement as determined by existing rules and regulations concerned, may outsource the procurement task by requesting other government agencies to undertake such procurement for them through the execution of a MOA containing specific arrangements, stipulations and covenants, in accordance with government budgeting, accounting and auditing rules; engaging private procurement agents to directly undertake the procurement for them subject to the guidelines issued by the Government Procurement board and recruiting or engaging consultants to assist them directly or train their staff in the management of the procurement function.
TESDA is a national government agency established by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 7796 otherwise known as the TESDA Act of 1994 and it supervises the administration of the BCSAT, the only TESDA-administered school in the region which currently operates and delivers diploma-level and qualification-based technical-vocational education and training programs, conducts research and extension services and serves as competency assessment center for tourism and services in the city.
On the other hand, the local government and TESDA recognize the need to provide more enhanced technical-vocation education and training programs, expand infrastructures and continuously improve the training facilities of BCSAT to increase its training capacity, provide higher level quality programs and establish school-based enterprise programs.
The resolution will be transmitted to Mayor Domogan for his signature and the subsequent scheduling of the signing of the agreement for the immediate prosecution of the long overdue project that will help uplift the status of BCSAT.
By Dexter A. See
Banner Photo by Meryl Perez