VICE President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte has ordered an investigation into the 2021 procurement of alleged overpriced and outdated laptops through the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (PS-DBM), the DepEd said on Monday.
At a press conference, DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said that the department had, on Monday-August 15, submitted a fraud audit request to the Commission on Audit on the laptop issue.
“Since most of the information is beyond us, considering that these are PS-DBM transactions, and considering that these were transactions done by the previous officials, the Vice president and Secretary Sara Duterte has already permitted us to write a letter to Atty. Jose Calida, Chairperson of COA, to ask him for a fraud audit from COA,” he said.
In its 2021 audit report, COA flagged DepEd for purchasing P2.4 billion worth of laptops through the PS-DBM even as there were allegedly cheaper and better options in the market.
“Isa sa pinaka-importanteng proseso ng pag-procure ay ‘yung tinatawag nating market scanning. Ibig sabihin nito, kapag nagpo-procure ka, bago bumili, kailangan ang ahensya, in this case, PS-DBM, kailangan nagtatanong sa merkado kung magkano ba itong laptop na ito na ganito ang specification. Nung bumalik sila sa Technical Working Group, inilabas itong presyo na P58,000,” Densing said.
“The reason why we’re asking COA for a fraud audit is the reason why it was downgraded from 1.9 gigahertz to 1.8 gigahertz, and at the same time tumaas din ‘yung presyo [why the price increased], and why is it IntelCeleron because we were very specific in the specifications of the laptop,” he added.
He stressed that the DepEd could not determine if there was an anomaly in the laptops purchase until the PS-DBM answers the allegations.
metrosundaily
