Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has ordered an investigation into the purchase of alleged pricey and outdated laptops for teachers in 2021 through the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (PS-DBM).
In a press briefing on Monday, DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said the agency submitted a request for a "fraud audit" before the Commission on Audit (COA) over the controversial procurement.
"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," Densing said.
In its 2021 audit report, the COA flagged down DepEd's purchase of laptops for teachers which amounted to PHP 2.4 billion. The laptop procurement was in line with the implementation of distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Isa sa pinaka-importanteng proseso ng pag-procure ay ‘yung tinatawag nating market scanning. Ang 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, and why is it IntelCeleron because we were very specific in the specifications of the laptop," he added.
According to Densing, the DepEd could not determine if there was an anomaly in the purchase of the laptop until the PS-DBM answers the allegations.
"Kaming nandito ngayon, nung nalaman namin ‘yan, nakakaramdam din kami ng galit kung sakaling totoo ‘yan at ayaw namin itong mangyari. Kaya direktiba sa amin ni Secretary Sara na paimbestigahan niyo na ‘yan para makita kung mayroong ibang kalokohan o wala," he said.
The PS-DBM earlier said it turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) documents related to procuring the DepEd laptops.
