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DepEd spox says laptops ‘could be replaced’ if proven slow, Briones denies direct involvement on PS-DBM procurement

Department of Education Spokesperson Michael Poa in a press conference said that DepEd will evaluate the claim and considers “quick fixes” to the procured laptops of Department of Budget and Management – Procurement Service (PS-DBM) worth Php 2.4B which could still be used as the next academic year resumes on August 22nd.

Deped Laptop Celeron Fi

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

“We are trying to remedy the situation because the teachers will use the laptops given to them last year for this coming school year,” Poa noted. “[But] if the laptops are confirmed to be really slow and not up to par with what we wanted, then, as far as I understand, they are still covered with warranty and could be replaced,” he added.

The said Celeron-laptops may get a proper replacement if the claim is proven, that those given to teachers were indeed slow machines.

“If need be, invoking the warranty provision will be done in coordination with PS-DBM, as they are the procuring entity,” Poa explained. However, he clarified that there is no directive yet for the laptops’ replacement as it is still pending evaluation.

Deped Spox Poa

DepEd Spokesperson Michael Poa

Former Education Secretary Leonor Briones has also given statement about the controversy. “The entirety of the procurement was conducted by the PS-DBM. It was the PS-DBM that directly had full control over the procurement, including pricing and item specifications,” Briones said in a statement sent to reporters.

Briones denied direct involvement with the procurement of the laptops. According to her, she was only a signatory in the MOA (memorandum of agreement) between the PS-DBM and the DepEd. “The DepEd had no hand in the canvassing, bidding and actual procurement whatsoever,” she explained.

Former Educ Sec Briones

Former Education Secretary Leonor Briones

Makabayan party-list Representatives France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan on Monday have sought congressional investigation regarding the DepEd – PS-DBM laptop deal through House Resolution No. 189.

“According to the [Commission on Audit] in its annual audit report, instead of utilizing its own Bidding and Awards Committee (BAC), the DepEd coursed the procurement through the Department of Budget and Management – Procurement Service (DBM-PS),” the lawmakers cited.

“The COA stated that the technical specifications ‘required by the DepEd did not intend to procure a laptop computer equipped with an Intel Core Celeron [sic], the most low-end type of Intel processor in the market.”

“Now therefore, be it resolved, that the House of Representatives, through the Committee on Good Governance, investigate, in aid of legislation, the procurement of overpriced outdated laptops for teachers by the Department of Education through the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS),” the lawmakers added.

DepEd, however, had reprimanded Makabayan bloc’s statement, “DepEd believes that it is not right to declare that the contract was anomalous without a final report by COA, much less [without the] findings from the Ombudsman.”

The department welcomes the congressional probe, “as we commit to transparency and accountability — even if the issue only involves an Audit Observation Memorandum, which requires the submission of documents to the COA.”

They urged ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro to be “prudent in her pronouncements on this matter,” marking its disapproval from Castro’s statement that teachers were getting shortchanged (“binabarat”). “DepEd has always been proactive in promoting teachers’ welfare over the years,” the department said.

Source (1) (2) (3)

ALSO READ: DepEd spent ~Php 60K each for thousands of Celeron-powered laptops in 2021 –COA report

 

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Avatar for JM Chavaria

JM's highest stat is probably his curious ardor to anything tech—electronics and gaming in particular. He certainly heeds utmost regard to specsheet, visuals, and rule of thirds. If creativity and wit sometimes leave JM's system, watching films, anime and a good stroll for memes are his approved therapeutic claims.

5 Responses

  1. Avatar for charito charito says:

    You are absolutely right, there is no issue with the performance of the said laptop, teachers use laptops for word processing spreadsheets and presentations which do not require high end laptops, the main issue is the cost which is alledgedly 58k for a celeron which cost around 19k. They are ought to buy 3 laptops for that amount if no corruption involved. Briones is the head of Deped so she must be held responsible because the corruption happened under her nose as well as the head of DBM.

  2. Avatar for Rabbitkun Rabbitkun says:

    Dear DEPED, the specs is not the issue here, the real issue is the price for specs, which was obviously jacked up.

    • Avatar for wnb wnb says:

      You are correct. First of all, Celeron laptops are not outdated. But paying P50k for a Celeron laptop is absolutely a dubious deal. If Celeron laptops would indeed be enough for the intended use of these laptops, they would either have been able to save a lot of money had they got these laptops for a fair price or they could have bought double the number of units for the same budget. This situation surely calls for an investigation. It is said in the article that they will evaluate if Celeron laptops would be adequate for the intended use, like if these laptops were really too slow daw. Maybe they would be okay for now. But what about in the future? Obsolete kaagad. Maybe that’s why DepEd specified Core processors para hindi ma obsolete kaagad. I really cannot believe that these people know nothing about laptops, specs, and price. Para silang nagta-tanga-tangahan para hindi ma-obvious na mey nangyaring magic dito. Siguro all of them are involved in this fiasco kaya gusto pagtakpan.

    • Avatar for James James says:

      I believe DepEd and PS-DBM should include the full context of their purchase contract. The price of the laptops are definitely overpriced if you compare it on an off the shelf purchase. Looking at the details of and requirements of DepEd in their purchase of the laptops one needs to factor in all the inclusion, these are not free, customized bios, bag, services, SLA, etc.

      https://www.guroforms.com/2022/01/delivery-of-laptop-computers-for-public.html

    • Avatar for moon moon says:

      wrong, in terms of architecture celerons ARE outdated by design they are still based on those old bay-trail cores probably that have horrible instruction per clock rates those were originally designed to power phones with light stuff not full on desktop OS’s. but they still sell them and revise them every year with minor improvements if you want something usable and can actually keep up a bit with the OS you can get the celeron on steroids aka the pentium line, at one point it got messy because they used 2 different architectures for the same line when they had the gold and silver line had completely different core count cache size and IPC between them. pero ayan theyre celerons are trash even when you pair them with ssds the processor is usually the bottleneck, under clocked under volted cpus. plus I think they used a mechanical hard drive for those laptops which makes them a paper weight

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