THE Department of Education paid the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management more than P69 million as service fee for the purchase of laptops to be used by public school teachers for the blended learning program.
During the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s probe on the pricey and outdated laptops bought by the PS-DBM for the DepEd yesterday, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the P69,195,642.30 service fee was unjustifiable for the “sloppy work.”
The amount represents three percent of the P2.4 billion contract to buy the laptops, said DepEd Usec. Annalyn Sevilla.
“In my opinion, the P69 million is not worth the sloppy work. And we’re hoping after the decades of existence of the PS-DBM, they would have perfected the art of procurement. But obviously, that is not the case and yet various government agencies are paying as high as three percent of their procurement price,” Gatchalian said.
Sevilla said the initial agreement was at four percent of the contract amount but this was brought down to three percent after negotiations.
Asked by Gatchalian if the P69 million service fee was worth it, Sevilla said: “Your honor, that’s really putting us on the spot. But the reason why we are transferring the said procurement is that we depend on the specialty or the expertise of the agency. And since 2017, we did not transfer anymore to DBM-PS. It was only this Bayanihan that we again transferred.”
She said DepEd actually saved money since the PS-DBM normally charges a five percent service charge.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III questioned the PS-DBM why it functioned as a “procurement agency” and at the same time “procuring entity” in the contract to buy the laptops for DepEd.
Pimentel raised the question after examining the memorandum of agreement entered into by DepEd and PS-DBM for the project.
Dennis Santiago, PS-DBM executive director, affirmed the role of the agency as a procurement agent under the law but failed to explain why the agency had two roles in the contract.
Pimentel, in a chance interview after the hearing, said PS-DBM should get its acts together.
“The PS-DBM is so disorganized for an agency existing for 30 years doing just one thing — procuring for the government,” he said, adding it is too early to tell if there was a collusion between DepEd and PS-DBM officials since the hearing has only tackled the bids and award stage of the contract.
Sen. Francis Tolentino, panel chairman, questioned the PS-DBM why it changed the specs for the laptops at least three times during the bidding stage, which left some suppliers out of the loop.
Tolentino said one of the suppliers complained that the PS-DBM changed the specs in the middle of the bidding process supposedly to favor other bidders.
Director Abram Abanil, an ad hoc member of the PS-DBM Special Bids and Awards Committee, said he decided to change the specs to add more security features to the laptops.
Meanwhile, the Blue Ribbon Committee denied the request of former PS-DBM head Lloyd Christopher Lao for the panel to clear his name so the Bureau of Immigration can strike him off its Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order.
Tolentino said 10 senators who are members of the committee voted to deny Lao’s request while five ruled in favor and two abstained. The panel has 17 members.
Lao was placed on the BI’s lookout list by the Blue Ribbon Committee that was chaired by former senator Richard Gordon in September last year so his whereabouts can be monitored should he attempt to leave the country.
