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The Department of Finance (DOF) has ordered the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) to get to the bottom of a P50-million IT project awarded to a private company at the time of the Aquino administration.
A state-of-the-art “Disaster Recovery” (DR) center in a remote location in Visayas was built to back up the operations of the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) in Manila.
In a statement released Wednesday by the DOF, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon deemed the project "incapable" of running the agency's data center.
The site was erected in a location that was "not ideal for the Treasury’s critical systems” due to a lack of high-speed fiber cables set up by either PLDT or Globe Telecom in the area, De Leon noted, saying it "defeated its purpose."
No funds were also allotted to cover the operation and maintenance of the center under the 2017 budget.
“We also have no budget under the 2017 GAA (General Appropriations Act) to maintain and operate the DR as our current maintenance costs for the Ayuntamiento’s unified communications system is only about P28 million annually,” De Leon noted.
The center needs to run at full capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and requires security personnel to guard the property.
The total contract for the DR center is P49,804,900, of which 80 percent was already awarded to Multi-Fold Links Inc.
The company operates and maintains the equipment until it is fully turned over to the BTr, De Leon noted.
Officially ready
The center was constructed starting in August 2016, before De Leon assumed the position of national treasurer.
Treasury officials under the current administration said they only learned of the project when Multi-Fold Links Inc. submitted an accomplishment report for the site in July, with a note that it was officially ready to be turned over to the BTr.
The original date of completion for the project was on February 12, which was moved to July 15, more than month into the Duterte administration.
"There were reasonable delays because we have dependencies on the building construction. So, nagkaroon kami ng revised order to proceed ng August 2016," Multi-Fold Links Business Fulfillment Office head Alice Basa, the project manager, told GMA News Online on Thursday.
She said the technology for the facility was "pre-wired" when the completion date was extended.
"The telco was made available in May 2017. Kaya just in time lang actually 'yung turn over last July, kasi BTr will have to do on-premise testing. We will have to get into equipment-staging," she added.
Basa noted the project was awarded to Multi-Fold Links in January 2016, after the company bagged the contract in a public bidding in the last quarter of 2015.
On Wednesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez ordered the Treasury bureau to find whoever was responsible for the multimillion-peso project which he called a "white elephant." — VDS, GMA News