December 17, 2024 | 11:21am
MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines failed to act on all recommendations by state auditors to address a long-delayed P134.6-million digital infrastructure project, including collecting penalties from and blacklisting a subsidiary of a telecommunications giant, according to the Commission on Audit’s annual financial report released Friday, December 13.
The 2023 COA findings note that UP has failed to enforce accountability measures on a major telco’s digital services subsidiary over the troubled eUP Project — an initiative signed in 2012 under then-UP President Alfredo Pascual that aimed to integrate academic systems across all UP campuses. Despite COA’s recommendations in its 2022 audit, the university has neither collected penalties nor secured the project’s completion.
State auditors noted the university’s continued inaction on three recommendations made last year. These were to collect damages from ePLDT, delist it from government projects, and demand the completion of undelivered project components.
In a statement sent to Philstar.com, PLDT said its subsidiary, ePLDT, has agreed with the university to “close” the issues related to the eUP Project.
The company’s communications team said: “The University of the Philippines (UP) and ePLDT have agreed in principle on a mutually beneficial agreement to close the issues on the eUP Project, built on mutual trust and a shared goal to drive sustained success for UP’s stakeholders, and in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.”
“ePLDT remains committed to supporting the academic community by helping enhance educational competitiveness using technology and fostering a brighter, digitally driven future for all,” the statement read.
Philstar.com has reached out to the University of the Philippines for comment and will update this article with their response.
The liquidated damages that UP failed to collect from the telecommunications company amount to P39.7 million as of Nov. 30, 2022. This stems from the contractor’s almost six years of delay in implementing key components of the eUP Project.
UP only submitted an updated computation of liquidated damages but took no concrete action to enforce penalties or secure the remaining deliverables, according to the audit report.
The UP Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs had, however, drafted a “memo” recommending the issuance of a notice of termination, a verified report and a blacklist order by the head of the procuring entity.
“Thereafter, the parties may resort to arbitration,” the COA report stated. Despite this, state auditors noted that there was “no submitted Memo or updates whether ePLDT Inc. was blacklisted by the university.” State auditors also noted that there were “no updates in the actions taken by the Management regarding undelivered portion of the project / service to be rendered.”
What COA recommended: Last year, COA had specifically urged UP to deduct the damages from any money due to the telecommunications company and collect from the company’s performance/security bond, as provided under Article V of their Memorandum of Agreement.
The university was also advised to impose appropriate sanctions beyond the liquidated damages, as prescribed under the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184 on liquidated damages, amended under Government Procurement Policy Board Resolution No. 02-2020.
Among COA’s recommendations for UP was to “initiate the procedure of blacklisting ePLDT Inc. to disqualify it from participating in the bidding of all government projects if warranted.”
What’s eUP? The eUP project was meant to harmonize and automate information systems across UP’s eight constituent universities and one autonomous college spread across 17 campuses nationwide.
Key components remain undelivered, including system integration test results and stress and security test results that would prove the interoperability of all information systems.
According to state auditors’ findings in 2022, UP had sent the contractor a “final demand letter” on Feb. 12, 2020 to collect damages for its failure to finish the project by Jan. 15, 2017.
The project faced backlash in 2016 when the eUP team criticized students whose undergraduate thesis exposed irregularities in its bidding process and reported violations of government procurement laws on brand references.
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