In a statement, the international body said that in its schedule, this batch will be delivered in the last week of March.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirmed on Tuesday in a statement that it had supported the contracting of “a batch of 46,422 computers worth $ 13,525,049.70, including transportation and insurance costs, funded by to the government of El Salvador ”.
These computers were delivered to students in the public education network last Monday, after a press conference in which the President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele; the Minister of Education, Carla Hananía de Varela; and the Secretary for Innovation, Vladimir Hándal.
In his speech on handing over laptops to students, President Bukele said on Monday that the government had invested $ 450 million in the purchase of this technological equipment, despite the fact that in the past Minister Hananía de Varela had mentioned that computers would arrive in the country. by donation from the United Nations.
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On Tuesday, the minister qualified his previous words and explained, via Twitter, that “when I say that I did not buy it, it is because I did it through the UN, with GOES funds. Why did I do that? For transparency and for all the additional benefits that this brings us ”.
The official data provided by the Government mentions that there will be 1.2 million computers, which will be distributed among a similar number of students nationwide, including the approximately 50 thousand people who make up the teaching staff of the public network.
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The UNDP statement specifies that this batch of 46,422 computers was to be delivered “in a staggered manner from the last week of March 2021”, and not just in the week before the elections, in which the Government can eliminate a political gap for these deliveries for the population. .
The UN body adds that “the procurement process was conducted in accordance with UNDP procurement policies and procedures and ensuring the principles: good value for money; impartiality, effective competition, integrity and transparency ”.
As announced by the Minister of Education, the first students to receive computers will be the second and third year of high school. Likewise, Secretary Hándal mentioned that at the levels of early childhood up to the fourth grade they will be offered a tablet, and from the fourth grade to the high school a computer.
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