NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Department of Education (DepEd) vowed to conduct an investigation regarding the learning materials that were reportedly found damaged by water in a warehouse.
In a statement on Monday, the office of the Education secretary said it is already coordinating with the Commission on Audit (COA) on the development of the investigation and has also set a review of its legal implications.
DepEd was referring to the 820,682 learning materials that were allegedly damaged in the warehouse of Lexicon Press, Inc., the publisher awarded with a contract to reprint 2,440,336 copies of the Grade 2 learning materials last February 2016.
“Report of DepEd’s Bureau of Learning Resources (BLR) yielded that DepEd and Lexicon mutually agreed to the temporary safekeeping of the completed LMs (learning materials) due to the several failed biddings for the forwarding services and for the refurbishment of DepEd’s warehouse in Taguig,” DepEd said in a statement.
“Until the successful procurement of such, the completed LMs would be stored at Lexicon’s warehouse at no additional cost for the Department and would be delivered in partial to DepEd’s existing warehouses,” it added.
The report also said that the partial delivery of the completed textbooks started in June 2016 and Lexicon discovered the damaged learning materials, amounting to P25,041,321.69, between January 17 and 20, 2017.
However, DepEd claimed it received Lexicon’s report on the damage on February 9, 2017.
The BLR moved to confirm the extent of the damage but noted that it had neither information nor control over Lexicon’s decision to dispose of the damaged textbooks.
The Office of Education Secretary Leonor Briones will validate the reports of both the COA and the BLR.
“A review of the legal implications is also set,” the agency said.
“The Department continues to coordinate with the COA on developments and remains steadfast to its commitment to uphold transparency and accountability in all its transactions and in the responsible delivery of basic education resources and services,” it added. /je