The International Finance Corp. (IFC) has urged the Philippine government to pay the services rendered by Stradcom to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) on the computerization project.
IFC which has a 15 percent stake in Stradcom that won a long-term concession in 1997 by LTO on a build-own-operate (BOO) scheme for the computerization and interconnection of the 247 LTO offices nationwide.
In a letter to Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, IFC country manager Vipul Bhagat said Stradcom has not been paid for its services to LTO since July 2003 due to certain issues raised by the Commission on Audit (COA).
"We understand from Stradcom that despite contrary assertions by both the LTO and Department of Justice (DOJ), COA claims that the issues remain outstanding," said Bhagat.
The LTO computerization was one of the first projects in the world to utilize a public-private partnership to improve the delivery of government services through the private sector which has attracted a lot of attention and interest as a model for other countries to follow, said Bhagat.
Stradcom has disbursed a total of US$60 million on the ongoing computerization project which is expected to cost US$84 million when completed.
IFC, the investment arm of the World Bank, has invested $20 million — a loan of $12 million and preferred shares worth $8 million — to support the project.
Bhagat said that success of the LTO computerization model has encouraged the IFB board to approve recently an investment of $60 million for the computerization project involving the Land Registration Authority (LRA).
The computerization of LRA was awarded to Stradcom consortium.
IFC’s involvement was instrumental in securing an investment by Korea’s Samsung Corp. in the LRA project.
"The IFC, a member of the World Bank, remains committed to working with the Philippine government to fulfill the country’s development agenda particularly in working through the private sector for economic development," said Bhagat. (Edu H. Lopez)
