The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) assured El Diario de Hoy that the laptops the government is handing over to students in the public education system on Monday are not the ones they bought with government funds.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) stood out yesterday from the delivery of computers by the Nayib Bukele government this week, ahead of Sunday’s election.
After the Minister of Education, Carla Hananía de Varela, declared yesterday that the purchase of the equipment was made through the United Nations, the organization’s office presented the statement.
SEE: UN confirms purchase of 46,422 government-funded computers, but delivery should have taken place after the election
“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 said via Twitter.
Following Minister Varela’s statement, El Diario de Hoy contacted the UNDP communications office in El Salvador to ask if the laptops the government has been delivering since February 22, 6 days before the legislative and municipal elections, are the same as they were. purchased with the support of the United Nations.
The communications office resolved the doubt and assured that the computers that the government is distributing this week are not the same ones that were purchased through the entity, as the education minister suggested.
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UNDP reported in a statement yesterday that it had contracted “a batch of 46,422 computers worth $ 13,525,049.70, including transportation and insurance costs, funded by the Government of El Salvador.”
According to the United Nations, the cost per computer is $ 291.
But, in addition, the UNDP response reconfirmed what it stated in the statement: that “the beginning of the staggered delivery in the warehouses of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ((will be) at the end of March”.
The UNDP letter 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, when the Government can eliminate a slit policy on these deliveries. the face of the population.
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On Monday, the government delivered computers to students in the public education network, following a press conference attended by President Nayib Bukele; the Minister of Education, Carla Hananía de Varela; and the Secretary for Innovation, Vladimir Hándal.
Although students, teachers, parents and teachers’ unions express that the delivery of computers is positive, officials are required to comply with the law.
The Electoral Code prohibits officials from publishing inaugurations of any kind one month before the election so as not to influence the voter’s intention at the last minute, but President Nayib Bukele and his government officials tried to overcome the ban by announcing the delivery of computers to schools on Sunday night. and with the “activating” bypass of La Libertad last week, indicated the lawyers consulted by El Diario de Hoy.
The government has announced that it will begin delivering the first computers to public sector students. Photo: Twitter / @nayibbukele
“During the thirty days prior to the date set for the elections, neither the Government of the Republic, nor the Municipal Councils and other autonomous entities may publish in any private or state media the employment, inauguration of national infrastructure works or any other nature they have. carried out, which it carries out or which it intends to carry out in accordance with the provision or assistance services to which the state is obliged ”, establishes article 178 of the Electoral Code.
In his speech on the delivery of laptops to students, President Bukele said 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 reach the country by donating at the United Nations.
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On February 9, the minister announced that he was waiting for a batch of 150,000 computers that the UN had purchased, which they intended to deliver to students in the second half of February.
“I didn’t buy the computers, the United Nations bought them,” Hananía de Varela said on the occasion. Although he added that they were purchased with government funds for 2020.
Official data released by the government states that there will be 1.2 million computers, which will be distributed among a similar number of students nationwide, including about 53,000 people who make up the teaching staff of the public network.
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.
The UN body added in its statement that “the procurement process was conducted in accordance with UNDP public procurement policies and procedures and ensuring the principles: good value for money; impartiality, effective competition, integrity and transparency ”.
The government can use buying agents exceptionally
On the other hand, the Law on Public Procurement and Contracts (Lacap) stipulates in its Article 20 that the government may exceptionally use agents outside the public administration, as in this case UNDP, to carry out procurement when none of the state institutions can does, after internal consultation with their institutional and contracting units (ICAO).
“When the institution does not have specialized or qualified staff in the matter in question, it will request the cooperation of public officials from other state institutions, who will be obliged to collaborate and, exceptionally, specialists may be hired”, says one of the subsections of article 20 .
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Public administration lawyers consulted by El Diario de Hoy explained that in this purchase of computers by UNDP, he acts as a purchasing agent or intermediary between the equipment supplier and the government.
However, the Executive did not explain what the “exceptionality” would be in this acquisition of 46,422 computers with the United Nations entity and now, when UNDP differs from delivery in the pre-election week, it raises other questions: from whom did it buy the laptops on which do you distribute and how did you download it? How many have been bought so far and how much is the cost so far?
The government’s spending on computers is $ 450 million, which, compared to the 2021 budget for the Ministry of Education, which is $ 1,320.4 million, indicates that only half of what would be spent on computers computers budgeted for the year and about $ 870.4 million would remain available for the other components of the education industry.
