Palace awaits results of DepEd, House probes on pricey laptops

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles made this remark after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged more than PHP3 billion worth of high-yield investment in government banks. (File Photo: Office of the Press Secretary/Facebook)

MANILA – Malacañang is expecting the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to respond to all controversies surrounding its procurements.

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles made this remark after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged more than PHP3 billion worth of high-yield investment in government banks.

The COA said the PS-DBM failed to revert the investment to the general fund of the Bureau of the Treasury in violation of Executive Order 431 dated May 30, 2004.

“Kung observation report po iyan, may pagkakataon pa pong sumagot iyong naturang ahensiya. So, hihintayin natin iyong sagot ng DBM (If it’s just an observation report, the agency still has a chance to respond. So let’s wait for the response of the DBM),” Cruz-Angeles said in a Palace press briefing.

Executive Director Dennis Santiago earlier assured the procurement arm is reviewing COA’s observation and will respond to it accordingly.

He also assured that the funds are currently “intact.”

“We are already reviewing the audit observation on the high-yield savings account and shall revert to COA to address the AOM [audit observation memorandum]. The amount of PHP3 billion is intact, and I am for the return of the money to the national treasury soon as we have properly clarified the nature of the funds with COA,” Santiago said.

Meanwhile, she said Palace will not make comments pending Congress investigation into the procurement arm’s PHP2.4 billion purchase of “pricey yet outdated” laptops for teachers.

“Sa ngayon po may imbestigasyon ang ating DepEd [Department of Education] at may imbestiagasyon ang Lehislatura so hindi po nararapat na mag komento until makita natin ang resulta ng mga imbestigasyon na yun (Right now, our DepEd has an investigation and the legislature has an investigation, so it is not appropriate to comment until we see the results of those investigations),” she said.

DepEd is taking steps to address COA recommendations over the laptops procured by the previous administration.

Calls to abolish the PS-DBM started after lawmakers called out the overpricing in the procurement of PHP42 billion worth of medical supplies and equipment for the Department of Health (DOH) at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers revived these calls following the revelation that PHP2.4 billion worth of teachers’ laptops for the DepEd were overpriced and outdated.

Santiago has appealed to give the Marcos administration the chance to “fix” the PS-DBM, saying reforms are being instituted and dedicated employees have been serving the procurement arm for several years.

“Please allow the new administration to reform and transform the agency and provide efficiency and economy in the acquisition of common-use supplies and equipment (CSE), which we intend to focus on as part of our mandate,” he said.