'IT project transparent'

An officer of the company behind the computerization project of the Land Transportation Office yesterday said the contract was “transparent and aboveboard” and that the government was not at the losing end of the agreement.

Vince Dizon, spokesman of Stradcom Corp., also said Rep. Rodolfo Plaza might have based his accusations on an earlier Commission on Audit report and noted that the audit agency had issued a final decision in January 2005 on the issue. Dizon cited the COA decision: “With respect to the issue that the (BOO) build, operate and own contract and the amendment are grossly disadvantageous to the government, this Commission believes otherwise.”

“So maybe what he (Plaza) got was not the final COA report. The contract is not disadvantageous (to the government),” Dizon told The STAR in an interview. “The LTO and the public can attest that there has been an improvement in services (since the project was put in place),” he said.

Plaza earlier asked the House committee on good government to look into the LTO’s project to computerize services related to the registration of motor vehicles and recommend its cancellation, citing that at the end of the 10-year concession period, only the database will be owned by the LTO, while the computer equipment and application systems would remain with the company.

But Dizon maintained that the BOO is a “legal contractual arrangement” under RA 7718, which states that the owner of the facility is the provider (company). He also said that the BOO arrangement was what the LTO mentioned in the terms even before the bidding for the project was started. “This was exactly what the LTO requested... (It was) very clear from the start,” he said.

In stressing that the government was not at the losing end of the contract, Dizon said the LTO did not spend anything for the project.

“All investments were done by Stradcom. Stradcom didn’t get anything from the government,” he said.

He also said that the fees collected by the firm are allowed under the law for them to recover their investment.

“All the charges go through the regular process of public consultation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Erdie Cuevas, vice president of the Amalgamated Motors of the Philippines Inc., clarified that their project concerning the manufacture of driver’s licenses was separate from the contract involving Stradcom.

“So the (manufacture of) licenses will not be affected (by the controversy),” he said in a separate interview.