Group keeps watch on P25-M DepEd purchase

By Kit Bagaipo
Philippine Daily Inquirer


TAGBILARAN CITY – An anti-graft group has teamed up with the Department of Education (DepEd) to keep corruption as far away as possible from a DepEd project to buy P25 million worth of furniture for public schools in Bohol province.

Elpidio Jala, DepEd Bohol schools division superintendent, said the DepEd has coordinated with Procurement Watch Inc. (PWI) to keep watch over the process to purchase the pieces of school furniture.

The PWI is a civil society organization formed by a group of concerned citizens with the goal of reducing, if not eliminating, graft and corruption in government through procurement reforms.

The DepEd-PWI watch, also known nationwide as “Bantay Eskwela,” was launched at the Manga High School in Tagbilaran City.

Jala said the partnership was a “timely response” to a Commission on Audit report saying at least P33.8 million of public funds were laid to waste last year due to substandard pieces of furniture bought for public schools in several provinces.

Last year, the DepEd allotted P1 billion for school furniture nationwide. Many of the pieces of furniture were to be delivered this year.

The PWI will keep watch over the ongoing delivery of P10 million worth of furniture, mostly classroom desks and chairs, to different schools in Bohol.

The pieces of furniture were being bought with funds allotted last year and P15 million allotted for school year 2009-2010.

The ongoing procurement program for Bohol schools will buy 5,817 classroom tables, 11,534 chairs, 230 teachers’ tables and 230 teachers’ chairs.

DepEd officials and representatives of PWI and various other groups attended the launching of the monitoring team-up.

Jala said the DepEd welcomed the partnership with PWI as the government lost hundreds of millions of pesos in the past to substandard pieces of furniture made from inferior quality wood.

The Bantay Eskwela project also seeks to keep watch over the other procurement programs of the DepEd.