DOH spent P380K for videoconferencing equipment that retails for P120K
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health spent a total of P11.9 million for 31 units of videoconferencing equipment, spending around P380,000 for each unit, when it retails for just around P120,000 each.
Enrique Tayag, director of DOH’s Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service, admitted Friday during a House hearing on the adverse reports of the Commission on Audit on the agency that they did buy 31 Cisco Webex DX80 units at around P380,000 each.
But Cisco’s website states that one Webex DX80 should only cost $2,390, or just around P120,000. It notes, however, that the final price of the touch-screen videoconferencing equipment, depends on the final price set by a Cisco partner.
Deputy Speaker Bienvenido Abante, who raised the issue during the hearing, noted that a high-end Apple Mac desktop would only cost around P125,000, while a one-year license for 50 Zoom users only costs P600,000.
Tayag explained that the procurement for the Webex DX80s was done through public bidding, which he said is not based on the lowest price but based on the lowest calculated bid.
“Hindi lang po tinitingnan ‘yung presyo, kundi ‘yung kakayahan po ng supplier or ng proponent na ito po ay made-deliver ayon sa specifications sa tinakda naming panahon na made-deliver niya,” he said.
(We’re not just looking at the price, we also look at the capability of the supplier or the proponent to deliver these according to the specifications, according to the time we want it to be delivered.)
He said these videoconferencing units will be distributed to three hospitals, so that patients would be able to interact with healthcare workers without them being physically present.
“Ang idea po kasi dito, habang may pandemic tayo … ay mabawasan natin ‘yung contact ng ating mga health workers sa mga pasyente,” Tayag said.
(The idea here is that while we have a pandemic … we should reduce the contact of our health workers with patients.)
The DOH entered into an agreement for the purchase of P11.9 million worth of video conference equipment and video conference desktop with video conference license with Microdata Systems and Management Inc. on March 5.
A price for the Webex DX80 is not listed on Microdata’s website.
Abante also raised DOH’s procurement of four units of “multimedia production laptops,” which cost them P292,418 each, totalling to P1,169,672.
Tayag said the DOH’s Health Promotion Bureau requested fast, high-powered computers with lots of memory as they supposedly needed this to create visuals.
“At hindi lamang po laptop ‘yan, naka-bundle po ‘yun sa mga proprietary licenses po,” he added.
(And those are not just laptops, these are bundled with proprietary licenses.)
Abante asked Tayag to submit to the panel documents on these transactions, which the health official agreed to do.
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