DepEd paid PS-DBM 69M service fee for laptop purchase
The Department of Education paid the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management more than P69 million as service fee for the purchase of laptops to be used by public school teachers.
During the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s probe on the pricey and outdated laptops bought by the PS-DBM for the DepEd, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the P69,195,642.30 service fee was unjustifiable.
P69 million represents three percent of the P2.4 billion contract to buy the laptops, said DepEd Usec. Annalyn Sevilla.
“In my opinion, the P69 million is not worth the sloppy work. And we’re hoping after the decades of existence of the PS-DBM, they would have perfected the art of procurement. But obviously, that is not the case and yet various government agencies are paying as high as three percent of their procurement price,” Gatchalian said.
Sevilla said the initial agreement was at four percent but this was brought down to three percent after negotiations.
Gatchalian asked if the P69 million service fee was worth it.
“Your honor, that’s really putting us on the spot. But the reason why we are transferring the said procurement is that we depend on the specialty or the expertise of the agency. And since 2017, we did not transfer anymore to DBM-PS. It was only this Bayanihan that we again transferred,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla said DepEd actually saved money since the PS-DBM normally charges a five percent service charge.
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