DepEd to review procurement guidelines

“The DepEd management assured that they will revisit the existing DepEd guidelines on the procurement of instructional materials and will evaluate the controls on buffer stocks,” Education Undersecretary Anne Sevilla said in a message to the media. (PNA photo)

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday said it will review its guidelines regarding the procurement of educational materials to remedy the delays in the delivery of such materials to various schools in the country.

“The DepEd management assured that they will revisit the existing DepEd guidelines on the procurement of instructional materials and will evaluate the controls on buffer stocks,” Education Undersecretary Anne Sevilla said in a message to the media.

“Regarding the learning materials procured, they have already allocated the materials and there is already an approved Activity Request (AR) and is in the process of release the buffer materials to the lower units,” Sevilla said.

Earlier, Senator Sonny Angara on Friday, chair of the Senate committee on finance, said he will file a resolution to look into the chronic delays in the procurement and distribution to the end-users of critical basic education facilities.

Angara said such delays have a big impact on basic education outcomes and the learners’ academic performance.

Citing report of the Commission on Audit (COA), the senator said the DepEd was also supposed to distribute 38.5 million textbooks and instructional and learning materials for the students and teachers but was only able to deliver 11.8 million.

He pointed out that 3.4 million copies of instructional materials worth PHP113.7 million procured from 2014 to 2017 were left rotting inside the warehouses of the DepEd.

The DepEd, meanwhile, said it is already working with its internal and regional units to comply with the COA recommendations.

The DepEd said it has complied with the COA’s request for an explanation with regard to its findings, adding that Secretary Leonor Briones and the Executive Committee have instructed the program teams concerned to follow strict controls to prevent similar findings in the future.

“The department continues to advance its reforms to financial management through the establishment of a Financial Management Reforms Committee chaired by the Secretary herself,” it added.