DepEd wants a "quick fix" for the overpriced laptops

After being flagged by COA, The Department of Education (DepEd), now wants a "quick fix" for the SLOW and OVERPRICED laptops that were given to the teachers.

Image edit of the DepEd laptop

DepEd laptop issue update...

According to DepEd, teachers who have received the said laptops may get a "proper" replacement device if the laptops that were purchased by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) were really slow.

See also: DepEd purchased a laptop with Celeron chip for almost 60K each in 2021

To recall, COA said that DepEd purchased PHP 2.4 billion worth of laptops through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management even though there are cheaper and better options in the market. These laptops are more expensive than what the budget was allotted for resulting in fewer units leaving over 28,000 teachers without a computer.

COA stated that they could not find a reason why the DBM-PS would agree on the unit price of PHP 58,300 which is too high for how outdated the laptops were. The supposed 68,500 units were reduced to 39,583 units due to this price increase per unit. The supposed budget per unit was PHP 35,046.

DepEd said that they would consider "quick fixes" to the issues so that the laptops could still be used when the classes resume on August 22. They said that it should be covered by the warranty or be replaced. There could be available legal remedies to invoke the warranty provision to compel the supplier to fix or replace the laptops if the laptops do not perform as they should as purchased.

The processor of the laptop is Celeron. This chip is considered slow for laptops priced at almost PHP 60K. Most laptops in the 60K range are equipped with at least Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 chips and those are WAY faster than ANY Celeron processor.

Weirdly, records by COA showed that DepEd was able to purchase 2020 laptops with Intel Core i5 processors at only PHP 32.5K through PS-DBM.

To read the full story, check the report of the Inquirer here.

Meanwhile, The Philippine Star reported that, 

Sunwest Construction and Development Corp. and LDLA Marketing and Trading Inc., the supplier of the controversial DepEd laptops, say units delivered "met all specifications, were competitively priced and performed according to their intended use."

Via: Philippine Star