The Senate blue ribbon committee report on the “overpriced” procurement of laptops for the Department of Education has reached the plenary.
Panel chairperson Senator Francis Tolentino on Monday sponsored the Committee Report No. 19 which discovered that the 2021 DepEd Laptop for Teachers Procurement Project was overpriced by at the least P979 million.
The Blue Ribbon panel additionally advisable graft and perjury costs in opposition to former and present officers of DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (PS-DBM).
The different suggestions included within the report are:
- Abolition of PS-DBM
- Requiring authorities departments, companies, places of work, together with the government-owned and managed companies, state universities and schools and native authorities models to conduct their very own procurement as an train of fiduciary responsibility to be accountable for public funds appropriated for his or her respective places of work
- Amending the Government Procurement Reform Act to offer for transparency and accountability necessities for three way partnership entities or preparations collaborating in public biddings and to offer for transparency and accountability safeguards through the planning and pre-bidding phases of public procurement, together with however not restricted to the setting of the Approved Budget for the Contract and technical specs or items, companies or infrastructure to be procured
- Immediate conduct of a Special Fraud Audit by the Commission on Audit
- An investigation by the Anti-Money Laundering Council on the overpriced procurement, together with an inquiry into financial institution deposits of the general public officers recognized within the investigation
- Special Tax Compliance Audit or a tax fraud audit inquiry to find out whether or not the correct taxes had been paid on the revenue of the Joint Venture consortium companions
In his sponsorship speech, Tolentino mentioned he has filed two separate payments looking for the abolition of PS-DBM and amendments to Section 23 of the Government Procurement Reform Act.
He mentioned Senate Bill 1803 or the invoice amending the Government Procurement Reform Act goals to offer within the regulation clear necessities as to the eligibility of a three way partnership to hitch procurement initiatives, main of which is the requirement that the first objective of ever member have to be comparable and associated to the requirement of the challenge to be bidded out to make sure that every member of the three way partnership is competent to adjust to the necessities of the challenge.
The invoice additional seeks to require the three way partnership to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and specifies that the legal responsibility of every of the members shall be joint and a number of other with the three way partnership itself.
Out of the 20 members of the committee, the next senators have signed the report: Tolentino, Senators Ronald dela Rosa, Bong Go (with reservations), Sherwin Gatchalian, Jinggoy Estrada (dissent), Imee Marcos, Raffy Tulfo, JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros (to interpellate), Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel (to interpellate).
In August 2022, the Blue Ribbon committee launched its investigation into DepEd’s buy of “outdated and pricey” laptops by means of PS-DBM.
The probe centered on the memorandum of settlement (MOA) used for the procurement and the bidding course of that the PS-DBM and the DepEd performed.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian earlier tagged the laptop computer procurement deal as “defective” after a DepEd official testified that the MOA was signed solely after the invitation to bid was posted and the citation for the laptops was requested.
In its 2021 annual audit report, the Commission on Audit flagged DepEd for buying costlier laptops than those indicated of their price range, which resulted within the procurement of fewer models, depriving over 28,000 lecturers of the profit.
Earlier, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa mentioned the company will cooperate with any proceedings that may present documentation as wanted.
Poa likewise mentioned that the division will “look intently” into the suggestions of the blue ribbon panel in a bid to strengthen its procurement course of following the controversial laptop computer procurement.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
