Apparently, the controversial DepEd laptop deal is nothing new. According to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, five “lucky” companies have been cornering billions of pesos worth of “juicy” laptop contracts from the Department of Education (DepEd).
Estrada said that the practice of awarding the supply contracts to a select group of companies flouted the government procurement law, particularly the prohibition against the “splitting of contracts” and “repeat orders.”
Splitting of contracts refers to the practice of dividing a procurement project into smaller contracts to avoid the mandated public bidding for transactions worth at least Php 500,000.
“Why are these suppliers so lucky that they almost always win juicy DepEd contracts that run into billions of pesos over the years?” Estrada asked.
The senator has revealed, based on the documents at hand, that Advance Solutions Inc. (ASI), Columbia Technologies, Reddot Imaging Philippines, Techguru Inc., and Girl Teki Inc. secured the bulk of the contracts to supply DepEd with computers.
“[S]ome of the suppliers that bagged… [the] contracts to supply Chinese-made computers to the DepEd do not even have websites, and their offices are located in obscure addresses in Manila,” Estrada said.
On the other hand, DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said in a Viber message that the department has no comment on the issue.
featured image courtesy of rappler
