MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee holds Thursday its fourth hearing into the laptops procured by the Department of Education flagged by the Commission on Audit to be “pricey.”
In its last hearing, the panel focused on the agreement — or lack thereof — between DepEd and the budget department's procurement service, which took charge of buying the laptops.
Related Stories
Before this, senators established that the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management does not have a manual of its procedures on selecting suppliers who will be sent requests for quotations. The PS-DBM uses the quotations for its price analysis.
As a result, the PS-DBM nearly began bidding even without the terms of the agreement between them and the education department being signed and set in stone. The COA, which originally flagged the transaction, said this should not have been allowed.
Watch the Senate inquiry LIVE, which will start at 9 a.m. on Thursday, September 29, 2022.