SEC defers bidding for its IT program

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has deferred plans to bid out its computerization program and will instead undertake a "modular approach" in tapping the use of information technology (IT), SEC chairman Lilia Bautista said yesterday.

She said the SEC computerization project, which was put up for a possible build-operate-own (BOO) scheme, was not considered feasible by the National Economic Development Authority’s Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) and suggested that alternative measures be explored.

This was the second project shelved by the SEC after the proposed "24-hour telephone hotline service" did not push through as scheduled last April. Pilipinas TeleServ, the project’s proponent, backed out when it found out that there was not enough volume of transactions at the SEC to keep its operations afloat.

TeleServ also services the 24-hour hotline services of the National Statistics Office and the Department of Foreign Affairs. But unlike birth certificates and passports which are for individual needs, the SEC caters to partnerships and corporations which usually rely on courier or messenger service for the submission of the required documents.

Bautista said there have been reports the original proponent of the computerization project, Strategic Alliance Development Corp. (Stradec), a consortium of various IT firms, will reconsider its decision to pull out from the bidding.

Last year, Stradec signed an agreement with the SEC to undertake a feasibility study for the computerization program although the government has not yet set a bidding schedule.

Stradec bagged the contracts to spearhead the computerization projects of the Land Transportation Office ($80 million) and Land Registration Authority ($98 million).

Bautista said that instead of re-engineering the entire computer system of the SEC to build a wide data and information network, the agency’s priority has shifted to a "modular approach" wherein certain aspects of its services can be outsourced.

She said these services that could be publicly and conveniently availed include an online registration and name verification system, both of which can be outsourced or contracted out to different companies.