DOTC suspends bidding for P3.44-B LTO project

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) suspended indefinitely the bidding for the P3.44-billion information technology system project of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) due to a temporary restraining order issued by the Mandaluyong regional trial court.

Mandaluyong RTC Branch 213 Judge Carlos Valenzuela issued on April 11 a 20-day TRO preventing the respondents in the case docketed under SCA MC 14-8902 from bidding out the project.

This came after lawyer Salvador Belaro filed a 17-page complaint with application for TRO and writ of preliminary injunction against Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, LTO chief Alfonso Tan Jr. and other government officials.

In his complaint, Belaro said he has the right to sue government officials who breach their duty to spend public funds with the bidding of the LTO-IT project in defiance of three rules crafted to prevent illegal or imprudent expenditures.

Belaro argued that the bidding of the project would violate the requirement of approval from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the need for multi-year obligational authority (MYOA) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and would lead to an expense greater than the sum appropriated by Congress.

He noted that the cost of the project when it was approved by NEDA in 2012 was P8.2 billion, but now it is down to P3.4 billion after two failed biddings and has no MYOA from the DBM.

He also pointed out that the 2014 General Appropriations Act appropriates only P1.298 billion for the P3.44-billion LTO-IT project, but the government intends to pay P2.066 billion or 60 percent of the total project cost to the winning bidder within 28 weeks from the issuance of the Notice to Proceed.

He warned that the project, once awarded, would constitute an unlawful disbursement of public funds without obtaining NEDA approval and MYOA from the DBM.

The DOTC pushed back for the fourth time the deadline for the submission of bids for the project to May 12 from April 11 to give bidders more time to submit their documents.

A total of 35 companies attended the pre-bid conference held at the DOTC headquarters last Jan. 21.

Among the firms that attended were Stradcom Corp., IBM Philippines, Innove Communications Inc., HTC Corp., HP Company, Datarail Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Computer Sciences Corp. of America, Eurolink Inc., Oberthur Technologies, Cyberlink Corp., and Microgenesis Corp.

Eastern Business Global Solution, Total Information Management Corp., LRA Pacific Management Consulting Inc., New City Industrial Creative Co. Ltd, Indra Systems Inc., Netpoleon Phils. Inc., and Jibe Technology Inc. also participated.

Other interested firms include Fritz & Macziol Asia Inc., ESGS Inc., GeniSystem Solutions Inc., Avesco Marketing, Multifold Links Inc., Rural Net Inc., Questronix Corp., EBI Solutions, Integrated Computer Solutions, Roll Base Co., Network Performance Inc, The Value System Phils. Inc., CEC International Co. Ltd., ASI Company, Omniprime Corp., Comfac Corp., and Cyber Research Corp.

The DOTC decided to slash the cost of the LTO-IT system project to P3.44 billion after two failed biddings. The project would instead be undertaken in two stages.