DOTC mulls IT system similar to NBN-ZTE plan

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is quietly moving to set up its own “centralized” information technology (IT) system that will also cover all the IT service needs of the 19 attached agencies under it, similar to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project packaged by the DOTC during the time of former President Arroyo, sources said.

This as Land Transportation Office (LTO) sources expressed concern that the DOTC could complete all the necessary feasibility studies, and procurement and actual construction of the required IT infrastructure as well as software installation, in time for the lapse of the 10-year contract of the LTO’s current IT and information database provider Stradcom Corp. in February next year.

If the DOTC fails to set up the IT system covering at the least the information database needs of the LTO by next year, they said this would lead to the dreaded scenario where the LTO would have to revert to manual processing of transactions.

The LTO has reportedly frowned at the recent move of DOTC to take over the job of setting up and maintaining an information database for the LTO under its decision to establish an “integrated” information technology (IT) system for the DOTC and all its 19 attached agencies, including the LTO.

The policy directive had stopped ongoing efforts of the LTO to bid out the contract for the IT database infrastructure in preparation for the lapse of the 10 year build-operate-own contract of Stradcom Corp.

The sources said the LTO was obliged to follow the direction of the DOTC on the matter since it has no funds allocated for the procurement of IT services in its budget.

The DOTC, it was learned, was already working on the establishment of their centralized IT system with the help of a firm it was set to contract for the project.

The LTO, under its director and DOTC Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres, has been laying out a bidding for the IT system of the agency, currently provided by Stradcom, which allows it to have a database for all the registered vehicles and driver’s licenses and student driver’s permits, and traffic violation receipts, and other issuances, issued by the agency.

It will be recalled that LTO, under Torres, and Stradcom have been engaged in a feud over the former’s move of stopping the remittance of payments to Stradcom since October 2010, citing a supposed ownership dispute in the IT firm.