A singular chance for newly-named Department of Education (DepEd) officials, led by Secretary Sara Duterte, to do right for teachers and students.
Education officials should not waste the chance.
Any other reactions, particularly those provoked by paranoid politicking, should be set aside as the department faces close scrutiny on the purchase of P2.4 billion worth of laptops for use by teachers in conducting online classes last year.
Newly-named DepEd officials should clearly understand many acknowledge they — as they themselves also acknowledge it — have nothing to do with the questionable laptop purchase with which the Commission on Audit (CoA) is now questioning.
In fact, right after the laptop controversy erupted, the newly-named officials clearly admitted the fact they have yet to get a handle on the inner workings of the mammoth Education department.
“I don’t want to go on the record just yet without the necessary facts. This all happened before our time so I do not have the answers on hand. Rest assured that we are looking into what the issues really are with these laptops,” DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa told reporters in a Viber message last week.
Still, the controversy has fallen on their laps and they are widely-expected to do something definitive about it.
It is also precisely because they are new at their jobs why there are high expectations and which allows them the perfect head start at proving they are up to the task in cleaning out the proverbial Aegean stables that is the corruption-ridden Education bureaucracy.
Indeed, their recent expressions for openness to a transparent, immediate, thorough, impartial probe on the laptop mess, and willingness to replace the questioned laptops with better ones are welcome.
Such a correct tack, therefore, shouldn’t be muddied by making reckless premature statements like “DepEd believes that it is not right to declare that the contract was anomalous without a final report by CoA (Commission on Audit), much less (without) the Ombudsman” sounds out of tune.
Reckless since, in my opinion, it undermines attempts to quickly ferret out who among officials of the previous administration of the agency had a hand or were responsible for the laptop deal.
Unless, of course, it is a ruse to flush out who among the holdover Education officials are showing suspicious eagerness that the agency slows down on its own probe. If that is the intent, I would understand.
Be that as it may, exercising due care is still definitely needed in the affair, since the initial move to pass on the blame to the controversial Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) was in itself a dicey maneuver.
Even if it did bring out the fact the PS-DBM allegedly jacked up the laptop price from P35,046.50 to P58,300 for laptops equipped with outdated processors, it didn’t completely absolve DepEd.
For the uninformed, the DepEd is under scrutiny after the CoA flagged it for buying “pricey” and “outdated” laptops for teachers coursed through the PS-DBM.
The PS-DBM, as we all know, is the same agency involved in the grossly overpriced pandemic supplies in the billion-peso contract cornered by the underfunded firm Pharmally.
At any rate, the DepEd contracted almost 39,600 laptops equipped with cheap Intel Celeron processors for P58,300 each. Prices of Intel Celeron laptops range only from P15,000 to P20,000.
The DepEd’s Intel Celeron laptops ended up more expensive than the more sophisticated MacBook Air with the advanced M1 chip, where prices start at P57,990.
How the deal passed muster with previous DepEd officials is the specific hard question asked of present DepEd officials to investigate and resolve.
CoA in its report said previous DepEd officials did not question the price and specifications given by the PS-DBM.
CoA insists DepEd officials, yet unnamed, should have exercised due diligence and checked out comparative units, prices, and specifications before approving the deal.
The task before newly-named DepEd officials, therefore, is merely to seek out those officials involved in the deal, name them and, if evidence warrants it, suspend, or prosecute them. Nothing much else is asked.
Newly-appointed DepEd officials should also move fast and settle the laptop controversy as quickly as possible. They certainly don’t need distractions now that the far bigger headache of face-to-face classes looms in the horizon.
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Email: nevqjr@yahoo.com.ph