THE GOVERNMENT bid out Friday its last public-private partnership project before President Aquino steps down this month, luring just one bidder for a P1.6-billion IT project aimed at modernizing the civil registry operations of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
But the PPP deal, formally called the Civil Registry System-IT Project Phase 2, was now facing some delays with only one bidder moving forward, Unisys Public Sector Services Corp.
The post-bid procedure followed a different process when there was just one offer to evaluate, PPP Center executive director Andre Palacios said yesterday. He said the bid would require the approval of the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority, which would need to evaluate the rate of return.
“We were hoping that more than one would submit, so the process would be faster,” Palacios told reporters on the sidelines of the bid submission.
Two other groups, the French-Filipino consortium of Morpho-Filmetrics-Frey and Filipino-Japanese PNJ Partnership Consortium, were earlier pre-qualified but did not submit offers. Unisys, meanwhile, is the current IT system provider for the PSA.
The project was set to be awarded by July 26, 2016, or after President-elect Rodrigo Duterte assumes office. Palacios said that award target would no longer be met.
The PPP project called for the “computerization” of the civil registry operations of the PSA. It would be designed to collect, access, store, maintain and manage civil registry documents and the specimen signatures of all city and municipal registrars using imaging technology.
The Aquino administration would end its term with the awarding of 12 PPP deals, valued at over P200 billion.
11 June 2016
By Miguel R. Camus
