Project integrator says IBM software defective

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said yesterday that an information technology vendor has confirmed that the pension fund’s system crash was caused by a defective software provided by IBM Corp.

In a statement, GSIS said IBM’s own business partner, Questronix Corp., which is the integrator of a key GSIS project confirmed that the crash was due to the defect in the IBM database management system called IBM DB2.

IBM has rejected the claims by GSIS. In a statement, the company said:

“We are disappointed with the approach taken by GSIS, which is ultimately not helpful to resolving this matter, nor in the best interest of its members. GSIS did not engage IBM in the selection, customization and implementation of this system. IBM was the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) provider to one of the technology vendors engaged by GSIS. GSIS does not have any maintenance or support contract with IBM. Nonetheless, in view of our long standing relationship with GSIS and out of goodwill, IBM has been working with GSIS’ solution providers to resolve GSIS’ system issues.”

GSIS chief legal counsel Estrella Elamparo said this admission by Questronix was published in its own website. Citing Questronix’s online statement, Elamparo said Questronix admitted that a “special build was made” after the cause of the crash was isolated in the middle of May.

“In the middle of May, the cause was isolated; a special build was made and installed,” Questronix said in its statement.

Questronix was referring to a May 15 report sent by Questronix director for business solutions, Bert Bartolome, which pointed to IBM’s DB2 software as the cause of the crash.

“There is a problem in the calculation of a new extent in table spaces larger than 2 TB (terabytes) and with 16 K (kilobytes) page size. Under these conditions, the calculation runs into an overflow. The overflow caused (IBM) DB2 to lose certain information in the leading byte and data may end up in the wrong table, resulting in subsequent page corruptions,” Questronix said.

The company said it is currently awaiting the commitment of IBM for the special build that would enable the system to carry larger data.

Questronix also said that it “acted responsibly in this situation - addressing the concerns of GSIS in a timely fashion and collaborating with them to restore service to their members.”

GSIS’s system crashed last March 30, paralyzing nearly 90 percent of GSIS’s transactions including claims and loans.

“Questronix is bragging about addressing our concerns in a ‘timely fashion’ when it took Questronix nearly two months to just figure out what’s wrong. Two months represent thousands of loans and benefits application on hold,” Elamparo said.

Elamparo said because of this defective database software, GSIS has suffered at least P5 billion in actual damages.