The joint venture group which supplied the controversial laptops to the Department of Education (DepEd) in 2021 said Sunday that the Commission on Audit’s (COA) comparative testing of their machines against another brand with different specifications was “unfair.”
The joint venture of Sunwest Construction and Development Corporation (SCDC), LDLA Marketing & Trading Inc. (LDLA), and VST ECS Phils., Inc. issued the statement after the COA on Thursday showed a video of a parallel simulation test comparing the speed performance of laptops procured by DepEd at P58,300 per unit and a Hewlett Packard laptop with a market price ranging from P50,000 to P60,000.
During the continuation of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the P2.4 billion laptop procurement of DepEd through the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service (DBM-PS), the simulation test yielded the following observations:
Opening of the laptop
DepEd Dell laptop: 48.65 seconds
HP laptop: 18.97 seconds
Opening of Microsoft Word
DepEd Dell laptop: 10.36 seconds
HP laptop: 1.15 seconds
Opening of Microsoft Excel
DepEd Dell laptop: 15.50 seconds
HP laptop: 2.15 seconds
Opening of Microsoft Powerpoint
DepEd Dell laptop: 12.72 seconds
HP laptop: 1.73 seconds
Opening of the video conference application
DepEd Dell laptop- 22.18 seconds
HP laptop- 2.96 Seconds
Shutting down the laptop
DepEd Dell laptop: 5.53 seconds
HP laptop: 2.95 seconds
Responding to these findings, the joint venture group argued that the comparison of a laptop with an Intel Celeron 11th Generation processor against a laptop with an Intel i5 processor was “irrelevant” as there were no bidders that offered an i5 processor during the bidding process.
“While it may be conceded that the i5 processor is faster, it is irrelevant for purposes of assessing the bid. Necessarily, the conclusion must be that no i5 processors were available for supply within the period specified by the bid. Even with advance notice, only two laptop brands were offered, the bid prices of which differed by less than 10 percent,” they said.
“It’s unfair to compare our supplied laptops on the basis of processing speed alone. There are other costs that go into the supplied price which the COA may not be aware of. As proof, COA can only look at the results of the bid. If the agency estimate was too low or excessive, then more bidders should have bid at prices very much lower. Instead, only two bids were submitted with a minimal price difference,” they added.
The group also said that the comparison with prices of retail stores was “not useful,” considering that there was no market price for the laptops to be delivered within 45 days nationwide with three years of on-site support.
They cited “chip shortage, shipping crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic” at the time of bidding as reasons for such.
As to the quality of the DepEd Dell laptop, the group also said only a handful of the more than 39,000 laptops supplied “had minor concerns which were promptly addressed.”
“No complaints or outstanding concerns remain unresolved to date,” it added.
During Thursday’s hearing, Job Aguirre Jr., the supervising auditor assigned at the DepEd Audit Group, said that the lag was also brought about by “the absence of a video card and SSD memory which are both needed to support the efficient overall performance of the computer through an increase in the frame per second of the system.”
He added that the COA tried to upgrade the operating system of the laptop, as earlier suggested by DepEd ICT Services Director Abram Abanil, but the laptops were still slow because of their processor.
The joint venture group, however, maintained that they won the bidding to supply the DepEd laptops “fair and square.”
They earlier said the computer units it delivered to DepEd for the use of teachers met all the specifications made by the government. They said the laptops were competitively priced and performed according to their purpose.
Aside from the computer units, other materials and services they provided were headsets, optical mice, antivirus software, ballistic nylon bags, nationwide delivery, and onsite warranty anywhere in the Philippines for 36 months, among others. – DVM, GMA News
.