The Canadian company paid 33 33,000 more than previously reported to the Department of Education for errors in the grade system calculated by Living Cert.
Polymetrica, an external contractor programmed by the code to include errors affecting thousands of students, was paid approximately 193 193,000 for its services until the end of September.
Last week, after the details of the errors were first made public, the department raised the figure to about $ 160,000.
In response to a parliamentary question from Labor TD Sean Sherlock, Education Minister Norma Foley confirmed that $ 33,000 has been spent so far on the deal, as reported last week.
In a written reply to Sherlock, Miss Foley said that Polymetric had played an integral part in the development and implementation of the estimated grade model.
The company was contracted to provide “statistical and psychometric expertise,” as part of contingency planning in the event that a living certificate does not occur as originally planned, they said.
Following the May 8 decision to postpone the Living Cert exams, the contract was extended to implement the grade model calculated under the terms of the pre-agreed contract.
The deal was worth $ 71,500 in 65 days. Any extra days will cost $ 1,100 per day. ”
No one wants to pen-pinch something as important as a living certificate, but we need to have transparency.
The awarding of the contract did not go through the normal procurement process, they confirmed.
“Due to time constraints, the department took advantage of the procurement process known as the negotiation procedure without prior publication.”
It is used in extreme emergencies, they added.
“To date, the total cost of the services provided by Polymetric under the contract is approximately Rs. 193,000, which reflects the services provided at the end of September.”
“These costs reflect their performance in the contingency planning and development surrounding the model’s performance and statistics.”
She added that the department has not finalized the costs associated with the external review of errors performed by the education testing service.
According to Sean Sherlock, the amount spent on the system of grades calculated without public tender is “something people are confident about”.
“No one wants to be pinned down on something as important as a living certificate, but we must always have transparency and clarity about the public money we spend.” “Especially when that money is on a rolling basis.”
A series of three known errors in the grade system calculated by Living Cert is believed to have given students about 15,000 incorrect grades.
This includes 6,870 grades given to 6,100 students, which is less than the student deserves.
Separately, the Department of Education estimates that 8,000 grades are more than students should be awarded as a result of its errors.
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