DepEd defends procurement of alleged overpriced, outdated laptops
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday defended its procurement of alleged overpriced laptops at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.
At the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, former Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the process of purchasing the laptops was “legal”.
“ADB( Asian Development Bank) and the Philippine Institute of Development students have been tracking the record of the PS-DBM. And this is why we say we passed it, we endorse the project to them,” Briones said.
“We do have a BAC (Bid and Award Committee). We have six BACs. But we need a huge BAC for this huge allocation. And we already calculated that we were preparing for face-to-face. We may not have time and the capacity to really look into the details of the offers of the various suppliers,” she added.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, deputy chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, asked the DepEd why they allowed the PS-DBM to increase the price of laptops when it could buy less laptops.
“Why did you allow the PS-DBM to increase the price? It’s very clear. From P35,000 it became P58,000. May I know why you allowed it?” Dela Rosa said.Former Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua said they allowed PS-DBM to change the price because they were given an “action slip” that gave them the option to accept a lesser quantity of laptop units.
“The PS-DBM gave us an action slip…they put there the price that they have. What they have agreed as the median of the market canvass that they have conducted, that's about P50,000 plus and they arrived at the negative P1 billion something funds needed to procure those laptops that we have asked them to procure," Pascua said.
"On that bottom of that annex, they put there the option for the DepEd whether to accept the lesser quantity. That's the action slip that they have provided us and ICT (Internet and Communications Technology) Director Abram Abanil signed that concurrence on that action slip. It was never addressed to the higher-ups of the DepEd," he said.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano questioned the Deped for procuring entry-level laptops at the price of a Macbook Air.
“Is it the incompetence of the people from the DBM-PS? You approved the P58,000 price which costs as much as a Macbook Air. How did you approve entry-level laptops that cost as much as the Macbook Air?” Cayetano said.
Pascua denied approving the purchase of the laptops.
“Your Honor, maybe it would be better if we asked them how they arrived at a P50,000 market value. We did not approve that,” he said.
Cayetano slammed Pascua for supposedly changing his answer.
“You are changing your answer. If I asked the stenographer to repeat, you said awhile ago that you were the one who approved it (the higher price of laptops),” he said.
Pascua again denied approving the higher price.
“I did not say I approved it. I said the PS-DBM gave an action slip that was concurred by the ICTS. I did not say that I was the one who concurred or confirmed,” Pascua said.
Senator Francis Tolentino, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, said he had proof to show that Pascua approved the purchase of the laptops just like Cayetano was saying.
“May I remind you and may I refer you to your statement made at exactly 10:50 am and I quote, This was never addressed to the higher-ups. That was in the transcript,” Tolentino said.
Pascua raised his voice as he continued to reject the senators claims that he approved the purchase
“What the PS-DBM was asking us was the option to reduce the quantity (of laptops)” he said.
Cayetano said it was not possible to approve the quantity of the laptops without approving the price.
“It’s the same thing. You’re just beating around the bush. You cannot say that you approved the quantity but you did not approve the price because it goes together,” he said.
The Commission on Audit in its 2021 audit on Deped report flagged DepEd's procurement of laptops through PS-DBM as being “pricey for an entry-level laptop“ and that the huge difference in unit price resulted in a “significant decrease” in the distribution to teachers. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
