COA did not recommend ban on DepEd laptop deal suppliers, says PS-DBM

The Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) on Friday said the Commission on Audit (COA) did not recommend the blacklisting of suppliers involved in the alleged Department of Education’s (DepEd) “pricey” laptops mess.

In a statement, the PS-DBM said that the state auditor’s audit observation on the agency for 2021 “on the DepEd laptop DID NOT recommend the termination and blacklisting of the supplier.”

“What COA recommended for that specific item was the creation of an Investigation Committee, which was adopted by previous management and submitted to COA, and was reflected with a ‘COMPLIED’ status in COA's Status of Implementation under its 2022 Annual Audit Report (AAR),” the agency said.

Meanwhile, in its 2022 audit report on the PS-DBM, the COA said that “the blacklisting and termination review committee has not yet conducted blacklisting proceedings over the subject contracts, thus, a resolution on the termination of contracts or blacklisting of suppliers has not been issued.”

The PS-DBM added that on top of the creation of the Investigation Committee, the current PS-DBM management, under the leadership of Executive Director Dennis Santiago, endorsed the DepEd laptop procurement to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for an independent probe.”

“PS-DBM is fully cooperating with the NBI by complying with specific subpoenas requesting for documents, and by allowing PS-DBM staff to be interviewed on the matter. To date, the NBI investigation is still ongoing,” it said.

The agency added that the recommendation to "immediately conduct contract termination and blacklisting proceedings" was for a different laptop procurement involving a different supplier, not the DepED contract.

To recall, in its 2021 audit report on the DepEd, state auditors flagged the Education Department’s purchase of laptops for teachers to implement distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the purchased equipment as allegedly "pricey and outdated" as there were more affordable and better options available.

The COA raised concerns about the DepEd's purchase of laptops for teachers to implement distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COA said that the purchase of the more expensive laptops than the ones specified resulted in the procurement of fewer units, depriving over 28,000 teachers of the benefit.

The audit report said that the 68,500 laptops that were supposed to be procured were reduced to 39,583 units mainly due to the huge increase in the estimated cost - from P35,046 to P58,300, anchored on the DBM-PS' recommendation, which was duly accepted by the DepEd.

State auditors said the DepEd settled and agreed with the price and technical specifications provided by PS-DBM.

In January, the Senate blue ribbon committee recommended the filing of  graft and perjury charges against some former and current officials of the DepEd and the PS-DBM over the "highly irregular" laptop procurement project in 2021. 

The PS-DBM assured the public that it is fully cooperating with the COA and concerned government agencies “to come up with an honest, transparent, just, and fair resolution to the issue because the Filipino people deserve nothing less.”—LDF, GMA Integrated News