House leader wants probe into DepEd’s procurement of laptops for teachers

House Deputy Speaker Bernadette Herrera-Dy on Wednesday sought investigation into the alleged questionable bidding process for the Department of Education’s purchase of 39,000 laptop computers for public school teachers.

In a press statement, Herrera-Dy questioned why the contract for the supply and delivery of laptop computers was supposedly set to be awarded not to the lowest bidder, which is contrary to the mandate of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

“We received information that the contract was practically secured by the second lowest bidder at almost P2.3 billion, which is P167  million higher than the bid of the lowest bidder,” Herrera-Dy said.

“This is quite alarming and unacceptable because the P167 million that the government stands to lose from this project could be used elsewhere, especially during this pandemic,” she added.

Herrera-Dy said she also discovered that the price difference was due to the laptop bag and not the laptop computer itself.

“Bakit naman ang laptop bag at hindi ang specs ng computer ang naging basehan sa pag-award ng contract sa pagbili ng laptop computers para sa mga guro natin sa public school? Nang dahil lang sa bag?” Herrera asked.

(Why the laptop bag and not the laptop specifications became the basis for the awarding of contract in this procurement? Just because of a bag?)

She further claimed that the lowest bidder got a post-disqualification notice for allegedly not complying with the requirements, including the required specification for the carrying bag. She said the requirement was ballistic nylon, but the lowest bidder submitted as sample a bag made from 100 percent polyester.

Herrera-Dy said the Congress should do something “to prevent the government from getting shortchanged in procurement projects using people’s money.”

Sought the comment, DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said the procurement is being done by the Department of Budget and Management.

“The procurement is not being done by DepEd, it is with DBM-Procurement Service,” she said. —AOL, GMA News