The Department Of Health is not having a great week. After being tagged by the Commission On Audit because of “various deficiencies” amounting to P67.3 billion in the health department’s use of funds to fight the pandemic, they’re once again facing scrutiny thanks to a public bidding document related to a bid by the DOH to buy 4 high-end laptop amounting to Php 700,000.
The bid (that you can freely check here) means that the DOH is looking to spend around Php 175K on a single laptop.
As someone who reviews laptops for a living, that’s an incredibly large amount of money for a laptop. That’s high-end, PC gaming laptop territory if I’m being honest, and nothing against the people at DOH, but I’m a little bit doubtful of the utility of a laptop priced that high as far as its usefulness with the agency.
But I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they need a very powerful PC to run computer simulations on how the new COVID variant spreads, or need the horsepower to try and predict where the next COVID hotspot would be – I wouldn’t know, I’m not a virologist. Maybe a look at their required specifications would show us what they intend to use it for. Let’s see:
Uh-huh. Judging from their specifications, the DOH doesn’t really need a bleeding-edge laptop. Their specs require a laptop that has a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of NVMe storage. No mention of a discrete graphics card for specialized use. And judging from their specifications, it’s more like they need a mundane, run-of-the-mill laptop that can run productivity-focused applications like Microsoft Word, or Excel.
This is what infuriates me. The DOH is asking for a budget of Php 700K to buy 4 laptops that could easily be bought for far less. As Giz Guide EIC Peter Jan Icogo put it, the DOH’s laptop requirements could easily be filled by an ACER Spin 5, which fulfills all of the DOH’s specifications and comes in at just Php 49,999. Hell, you can find it in Lazada for cheaper (Php 45,500). Why the hell does the DOH need a Php 175K for laptops when their own requirements tell anyone familiar with PCs that they’re meant to be used in mostly productivity-focused tasks?
What’s really frustrating here is that the DOH is asking to procure “hi-end” laptops, when their own specs show that what they need are low to mid-range laptops, AT BEST. When has a laptop with, at best, a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage EVER been considered as high-end? Is the person behind this procurement secretly a PORSCHE Design fan?
And yes, I am aware that even if the approved budget for a laptop is set at Php 700K, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the laptop that they will be getting will be priced that high, and just means that the supplier cannot go above that price treshold for whatever bid they give out. But because the set value per laptop is so much higher than what the price is really in the market for what they need, there’s so much room for abuse as far as procurement goes. A per-unit cost of Php 80K would be far more reasonable if you factor in the DOH’s own requirements here.
DOH, I’m sure there are a LOT more things you can spend this money on. Hell, I’m even willing to give you recommendations on laptops that you can buy that’ll give you the most bang for your buck, so that you’re not spending more than SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS ON FOUR LAPTOPS WHEN THAT MONEY CAN BE USED TO ACTUALLY FIGHT THE LITERAL PLAGUE IN OUR COUNTRY.
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