COA tells UP to blacklist PLDT subsidiary over failure to complete million-peso IT project

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit has recommended to the University of the Philippines to blacklist a PLDT subsidiary for its failure to complete a multi-million digital infrastructure project that was supposed to be concluded six years ago.

In its 2022 audit report on the UP system, government auditors noted that the state university has failed to sanction ePLDT for the five years and 11 months delay in the full implementation of the eUP project. 

The eUP project was a systemwide initiative that aimed to harmonize and automate the information systems of all UP campuses. It is the legacy project of then-UP President Alfredo Pascual, who is now secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry. 

Pascual and ePLDT Inc. entered into an agreement for the eUP project in 2012.

The delay in the completion of the eUP project and “nonsubmission of key deliverables” has led to a running bill of at least P38 million in “imposable liquidated damages” as of November 2022. 

This had “(deprived) the intended beneficiaries, particularly the students that could have been benefited by the full completion of the project,” COA noted.

Among COA’s recommendations for UP was to “initiate the procedure of blacklisting ePLDT Inc. to disqualify it from participating in the bidding of all government projects if warranted.” Government auditors have also recommended that UP impose sanction on the PLDT subsidiary and collect damages.

According to UP’s records, the penalties imposable on ePLDT Inc. as of Sept. 21, 2022 had “already exceeded the 10% of the total contract price,” COA said.

What did ePLDT fail to deliver? 

According to COA, ePLDT has failed to submit a “system integration test result” and “stress and security test result,” the latter of which was inserted into the contract to “prove the interoperability of all the information systems in place.” 

This has also led to non-submission of the “complete project turnover” and “final report,” COA noted.

According to the audit report, UP had sent ePLDT a "final demand letter" on Feb. 12, 2020 to collect damages for its failure to finish the project by Jan. 15, 2017. "No payment and no response were received from ePLDT Inc. by the University until to this date,” COA noted.

UP has since filed a complaint with the Office of the Solicitor General over the unsettled damages, COA added.

In response to the state auditors' recommendations, UP said that its accounting office will be "discussing the process on blacklisting" with the relevant UP offices related to procurement. 

In 2016, the eUP project faced backlash when the team behind it lambasted students whose thesis exposed irregularities in its bidding process and reported violations of government procurement laws on brand references.

The UP College of Mass Communication rallied behind the student researchers who wrote the four-part investigative report and maintained that the thesis and its findings had gone through established academic processes.

The UP system has eight constituent universities and one autonomous college located on 17 campuses across the country.

Editor's Note: A unit under PLDT's media conglomerate has a majority stake in Philstar Global Corp., which runs Philstar.com. This article was independently produced following editorial guidelines.