Skip to main content

Dominguez wants P50M IT project of BTr probed

PHOTOS BY KIM IGNACIO. DOFF COMMS TEAM © Provided by Mediamerge Corporation PHOTOS BY KIM IGNACIO. DOFF COMMS TEAM

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

Popular posts from this blog

Cimatu warns miners: Don’t befoul watersheds, forests, aquatic resources

© Provided by Mediamerge Corporation Newly-appointed Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu poses for a photo before being sworn into office by President Rodrigo Duterte ahead of the 15th Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Monday, May 7, 2017. Robinson Niñal/PPD Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Tuesday warned mining firms to observe responsible mining and avoid destructive practices or face sanctions His pronouncement came in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's second State of the Nation Address, in which the chief executive emphasized mining's impact on the environment. "I know for a fact that in a number of cases, weak and irresponsible mining practices result [in] environmental destruction—contaminating farmlands and poisoning our rivers and seas," Cimatu said in a statement. "Miners better refrain from despoiling our watersheds, forests and aquatic resources," he added. Cimatu said the Department of Environment and Natural Res...

You can pay at a restaurant by smiling at a camera

© Provided by Engadget As easy as it is to make purchases in the era of tap-to-pay services , it's about to get easier still. Alipay (which handles purchases for Chinese shopping giant Alibaba) has launched what it says is the first payment system that uses facial recognition to complete the sale. If you visit one of KFC's KPRO restaurants in Hangzhou, China, you can pay for your panini or salad by smiling at a camera-equipped kiosk -- you need to verify the purchase on your phone, but you don't have to punch in digits or bring your phone up to an NFC reader. The system (Smile to Pay) is purportedly resistant to spoofing with photos and other tricks. It relies on both depth-sensing cameras and a "likeness detection algorithm" to make sure it's really you. Reportedly, the technology is good enough that it can accurately identify people even when they're disguising themselves through makeup or wigs. You shouldn't have to worry about someone buying ...

Tesla cloud account hacked to mine cryptocurrency

© Provided by The Hill An unidentified outside hacker infiltrated Tesla's Amazon cloud account and used its systems to quietly mine for cryptocurrencies, a cybersecurity firm announced Tuesday. The hack also potentially exposed the electric car company's data. Researchers for RedLock found that Tesla's credentials on an IT administrative console were not password protected. They made the discovery while trying to track down which organizations had left their Amazon Web Services (AWS) credentials openly exposed on the internet last month. The hackers quietly hijacked the console and began running scripts to generate virtual currency like bitcoin, the latest in a series of "cryptojacking" attacks. The researchers also found the hackers used "sophisticated evasion measures" to go undetected. A spokesperson for Tesla said the company learned about the breach in a company-sanctioned bug bounty program that pays outside hackers to discover vulnerabilitie...