Renewal of Stradcom contract pushed

Taxpayers stand to save billions of pesos in hardware and software startup costs if the government opts to renew the information technology contract between Stradcom Corp., on one hand, and the Land Transportaton Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on the other.

In a statement, Stradcom spokesperson Margaux Salcedo said the savings would amount to more than P7.9 bilion worth of IT infrastructure, which the company already has in place for its current—and expiring—deals with both agencies under the Department of Transportation and Communications.

At the same time, Salcedo reiterated the company’s call to the DoTC to reconsider Stradcom’s proposal for contract renewal before a total and outright rejection of the IT firm’s proposal.

Salcedo said Stradcom will, under a renewed contract, invest another P2 billion in the rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure and expansion of the services of the LTO to include online transactions, mobile ticketing and biometric verification for drug tests.

On top of this, Stradcom is offering the government a yearly revenue share of P200 million or P2 billion pesos spread over 10 years as prescribed in a renewed contract.

Despite DoTC’s assurances that an IT infrastructure will be in place by the end of Stradcom’s contract in February 2013, Salcedo expressed doubts on the ability of any firm to construct from scratch a nationwide IT facility for one of the busiest government agencies in a span of six months.

In fact, Salcedo said it took Stradcom five years before a Certificate of Acceptance for an IT Facility was issued by the government.

More importantly, she said the government was sending wrong signals to would-be proponents of the Public-Private Partneship projects.

Roughly 800 personnel employed directly and indirectly by Stradcom or the LTO-IT project in 240 sites across the country will be displaced by the nonrenewal of the Stradcom contract.

Stradcom modernized the LTO after it was awarded the contract for the project in 1997 after an open, competitive public bidding. Stradcom was evaluated to have offered the most technically viable solution and the lowest charges to the transacting public.