A DEPUTY majority leader on Sunday asked the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) to address serious concerns raised about the P4-billion supply contract for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), or the national ID project.
House Deputy Majority Leader Bernadette Herrera, in a statement, said the Neda, which chairs the PhilSys Policy and Coordinating Council, has yet to clear the alleged irregularities that resulted in the award of the PhilSys contract to the lone bidder, Madras Security Printers Private Ltd. (MSP).
During the initial budget hearing conducted by the House Committee on Appropriations last Sept. 4, Herrera sought Neda’s explanation as to why the Bids and Awards Committee for the PhilSys project suddenly imposed a questionable additional provision, which essentially left only one complying bidder.
“Why did we change in the middle of the game the terms of reference from 100 percent cloud implementation to a hybrid approach of on-premise and cloud implementation which, according to the Philippine Computer Society (PCS) Foundation, is very risky and a first of its kind?” Herrera asked.
“I’m scared because we are talking here about our national ID system, and I’d like to get an explanation to that because I want to make sure we are secured in this bidding of the national ID project,” she added.
Herrera also expressed apprehension about the winning bidder, MSP, an India-based printing technology company.
Acting Neda chief Secretary Karl Hendrick Chua said he would request the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which is in charge of the national ID project, to submit a detailed answer to the lawmaker.
He also assured lawmakers the project “underwent competitive bidding.”
Herrera said the PCS Foundation had earlier expressed concern over the use of a hybrid cloud system architecture for the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), the technology to be used for the national ID system.
In its July 30, 2020 letter to the PSA, the PCS Foundation said that from its research and understanding of MOSIP, it works at an optimum when the app, web and database servers are all hosted in the cloud.
“The hybrid approach would be the first implementation of its kind and this is very risky undertaking by the PSA,” the foundation said.
“As you can see in the logical data infrastructure of MOSIP, the transfer of data within the system will be greatly affected if the database server will be on-premise,” it added.
PSA Foundation is a non-government organization. It has been providing advice on government procurements since the enactment of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act in 2003.