Emano, others to face raps for P8.6 million multi-media educ package scam

May 20, 2008

quality education

MULTI-MEDIA EDUCATION? City Hall corruption allegedly caused the lack of major improvement in the educational system here in the city. COA recently even disallowed a P8.6 million educ multi-media package deal. (Story by: Lizanilla J. Amarga)

Cagayan de Oro city mayor Constantino Jaraula and newly-installed Department of Education Cagayan de Oro (DepEd-CDO) supervisor Dr. Myrna Motoomull are now being asked to conduct an independent probe on the controversial P8.6 million educational multi-media packages for the city’s elementary public schools.

Opposition City Councilor Teodulfo Lao, Jr., former city councilor Atty. Roy Raagas and Atty. Rogelio Bagabuyo said Jaraula and Motoomull should check with the Local School Board and the elementary public school principals as to what happened to these information technology equipments.

Lao pointed out that local public schools need to catch up to the new technologies and materials being used in private schools in educating their pupils, if they are to be better equipped in the future.

“This P8 million multi-media package amount could have gone a long way for our children,” Raagas said in the dialect.

Bagabuyo said the probe that Jaraula and Motoomull should initiate can proceed separate from that of the case they are building against former mayor now Vice Mayor Vicente Emano and those behind the scam at the Office of the Ombudsman.

He said the P8 million multi-media package that was later ordered by the Commmission on Audit (COA) as invalid must be double-checked by Motoomull who now sits at the Local School Board and has supervision over the public elementary schools that were supposed to be beneficiaries of these educational equipments.

The opposition also voiced suspicions that, despite how the P8.6 million contract to purchase these educational equipments was ordered invalidated, funds from the local school board were actually already disbursed.

For the opposition, the awarding of the P8.6 million contract to a supplier who submitted “incomplete and inaccurate” pre-bid documents and who did not even attend the pre-bidding conference yet still given by the Emano administration the whole contract speaks of how the entire bidding was rigged in 2006.

The P8.6 million contract was awarded last 2006 while the post-audit report findings that the same should be invalidated and disallowed was issued by COA state auditor Olivia Flores was only made last July 2007.

Also, the COA Annual Audit Report 2006 listed the purchase of this educational package as one of the items purchased during that fiscal year.

“Duna na gyud nakasapi adto (Somebody really got money out of the whole transaction already),” said Bagabuyo who is also one of the lawyers now requested by a competing supplier Merryland Publishing, Inc. to file charges against those behind the rigged bidding and awarding.

The P1,084,625 of this 10 million is for the purchase of 25 units of multi-media packages with each package composed of the following: computer with Tower ATX casing, P4 mother board, Pentium 4 processor, 128 MB DDR, 1.44 FDD, 52 x CD ROM drive, 56 kbps internal modem, 40 Gig HHD, 128 MB Video card with TV out, 17-inches digital colored monitor, PS/2 MS Windows keyboard, PS/2 Windows Mouse and O/S Windows XP.

Then the remaining P8,915,375.00 were for the 25 sets Multimedia Instructional Package for the Elementary, 1,275 compact discs for elementary grades 4,5 and 6; 9,000 worktext books for Elementary English, Mathematics, Science and Health including Teacher’s Manual for these books; a one day seminar on how to use these IT multi-media packages for all DepEd-CDO teachers.

Also, 25 units 21-inches colored television sets, 25 pieces multi-media microphones, 25 sets amplifier speakers and 25 sets automatic voltage regulators (AVRs).

The state auditor invalidated the whole P8.6 million contract as the winner of the bidding submitted incomplete and inaccurate documents and did not attend the pre-bidding conference and thus, violated Republic Act 9184 or the Government Reform Procurement Act.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Cagayan de Oro