COA hits credit registry over delayed project

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Credit Information Corp. (CIC), a state-run lending registry under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, over its delayed computerization project worth P4.8 million that should have been completed in 2018.

In its 2022 annual audit report on CIC, the COA said the delivery of a fully functional Computerized Accounting System-Enterprise Resource Planning (CAS-ERP), a type of accounting software, to the CIC remained incomplete as of Dec. 31, 2022.

The CIC, created in 2008, is a state firm mandated to maintain a centralized credit information system to monitor existing large-amount borrowers, or borrowers with pending credit applications before government banks.

The COA said the remaining undelivered portion of the contract amounted to P1.440 million, representing 30 percent of the total contract cost.

The CIC was meted a P40,000 penalty by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which required that all those classified as “large taxpayers” maintain and use CAS-ERP for their transactions. The CIC said the supplier will shoulder the penalty.

The CIC neither imposed damage fees on the supplier nor terminated the contract, COA said.

The government procurement law states that the procuring entity may terminate the contract if at least 10 percent of the total contract remains undelivered within the agreed period.

State auditors said the CIC has agreed to “impose, compute and collect liquidated damages against the supplier and consider terminating the contract.