REMEMBER HIM? Former Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, earlier grilled over the controversial Pharmally pandemic supply contracts, is back facing the Senate blue ribbon committee on Thursday, August 25, 2022, this time over the costly laptops bought for public school teachers. He said he no longer had a role in the laptop deal completed in August 2021, but senators noted he was the signatory in the procurement memorandum. 鈥擭I脩O JESUS ORBETA
Officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) on Thursday owned up to errors in the documents for the purchase of laptops worth P2.4 billion for public school teachers, a deal that was flagged earlier by state auditors for being 鈥減ricey but outdated.鈥�
After the five-hour hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee, several senators believed that the lapses were too glaring for these to be due to carelessness, with Senators JV Ejercito and Risa Hontiveros pointing out that the PS-DBM had been repeatedly involved in allegedly anomalous government purchase contracts.
鈥淸These are] intentional. You don鈥檛 commit lapses or small mistakes for contracts worth billions [of pesos],鈥� Ejercito told the Inquirer.
Hontiveros noted that the Commission of Audit (COA) had put to task the PS-DBM for its questionable purchases for other state agencies, such as the multibillion-peso deals for the government鈥檚 pandemic supplies that were awarded to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.
鈥淎ccording to the [antigraft law], interest for personal gain shall be presumed against public officers responsible for the approval of inequitable or irregular transactions,鈥� Hontiveros said.
READ: COA flags DepEd purchase of 鈥榩ricey, outdated鈥� laptops
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who filed the resolution seeking an inquiry into the controversy, said he was certain that the public officials behind the procurement project did not commit an honest mistake, but 鈥渉onest corruption.鈥�
鈥淭here was collusion,鈥� Cayetano told reporters after the hearing.
鈥淚t鈥檚 impossible that there鈥檚 no connivance (among the DepEd and PS-DBM officials). Common sense will dictate that when PS-DBM increased the price for the laptops, DepEd should have rejected the price of more than P58,000,鈥� he added.
Quizzed by Sen. Francis Tolentino, who presided over the hearing as committee chair, Education Assistant Secretary Salvador Malana III admitted that there was a 鈥渂ig mistake鈥� in the memorandum of agreement signed by then Education Secretary Leonor Briones delegating the PS-DBM to buy the gadgets.
This was after Tolentino noticed that a portion of the document mentioned that the agreement should comply with the 鈥淔ood and Drug Law.鈥�
At the time, the DBM鈥檚 procurement agency was still headed by Lloyd Christopher Lao, one of the central figures in the Pharmally corruption scandal.
READ: DepEd: DBM-PS bought teachers鈥� laptops, not us
Tolentino surmised that the agreement might have just been a pro forma document that the PS-DBM had prepared as template for all contracts it entered into involving the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE).
鈥淚 almost fell off my chair after reading this,鈥� Tolentino said. 鈥淲hy was the Food and Drug Administration mentioned here? We are talking about laptops, not PPEs. Those are not medical devices. These are not medicines.鈥�
鈥淥r is it because you thought you were buying tablets?鈥� he quipped, referring to computer tablets.
Malana immediately recognized the error, but said he was 鈥渘ot privy鈥� to the drafting of the agreement.
When Tolentino told him that he signed the document as one of the witnesses, Malana responded: 鈥淚 agree with you that this could be a big mistake.鈥�
鈥淚t was a mistake to have included the Food and Drugs Law. I would also mention that this emanated from a pro forma contract from the PS-DBM,鈥� he added.
Malana said there were also 鈥渕istakes鈥� committed by the lawyers who wrote the contents of the agreement.
鈥淏ut I do take responsibility for having signed as a witness,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e apologize. We do admit that there was a mistake.鈥�
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III also asked the PS-DBM officials for their basis in labeling as 鈥渃omplied鈥� the specifications of the product of one of the prospective suppliers even if the laptop clearly did not meet the minimum requirements set by DepEd.
More mistakes
Marwan Amil, a member of the PS-DBM鈥檚 bids and awards committee, acknowledged that they merely encoded the word 鈥渃omply鈥� based on the documents submitted to them by the companies that the PS-DBM had approached to supply the laptops.
鈥淲e missed out on the statement of compliance of the [prospective] supplier. We did not see it directly. We made a mistake,鈥� Amil said. 鈥淲e mistakenly did not see it.鈥�
READ: 鈥楻evolting鈥�: 29,000 teachers left out after PS-DBM bought pricey, outdated laptops
Visibly stumped by Amil鈥檚 confession, Pimentel asked PS-DBM executive director Dennis Santiago regarding the qualifications of the personnel tasked with handling procurement projects amounting to billions of pesos in taxpayer money.
鈥淒id you just really 鈥榤iss out?鈥� We should be particular with the details. We cannot miss out [on the specifications of the laptops],鈥� he told Amil.
鈥淭heoretically,鈥� Pimentel said, 鈥�(The PS-DBM) has a system allowing for a review so that the things that may be 鈥榤issed out鈥� will not be 鈥榤issed out.鈥�
鈥淏ut the system does not work,鈥� he said, raising his voice.
Pimentel also rebuked the senior officials of the PS-DBM after he noticed that Sharon Baile, the procurement officer who should have reviewed the document that Amil prepared, was just represented by another official who signed the document in her behalf.