COA did not recommend ban on DepEd laptop suppliers – DBM

MANILA, Philippines — The Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) has clarified that the Commission on Audit (COA) did not recommend the termination and blacklisting of the supplier of laptops for public school teachers intended for online instruction during the pandemic lockdown.

“What COA recommended for that specific item was the creation of an investigation committee, which was adopted by previous management and submitted to COA,” PS-DBM said in a statement, referring to the audit observation memorandum issued by COA.

The agency argued that this was reflected as a “complied” status in the state auditor’s annual report.

PS-DBM faced a controversy for the procurement of 39,583 “pricey” laptops worth P2.4 billion supposedly for public school teachers.

PS-DBM pointed out 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.

This followed a framework agreement expiry date present only in common-use supplies and equipment (CSE).

PS-DBM maintained that the DepEd contract is a non-CSE procurement.

It also revealed endorsing the DepEd laptop procurement to the National Bureau of Investigation for an independent probe.

It emphasized that it is fully cooperating with the NBI by complying with specific subpoenas requesting for documents, and by allowing staff to be interviewed on the matter.

The investigation with the NBI is still ongoing.

Earlier, the DBM said it was targeting to come up with a procurement roadmap this year in a bid to achieve bureaucratic efficiency and reduce corruption in the government.