MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Leila De Lima Thursday ordered the probe against information technology (IT) firm Mega Data Corp. (Mega) after it allegedly failed to comply with the provisions of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BoT) scheme when its contract for the NBI clearance services expired last June 30.

The order of De Lima was made in the light of the public complaint that applying for the NBI clearance was taking much longer after Mega, which managed its NBI’s computerized clearance system for the past 30 years, ceased its operation when its contract with the bureau ended.

In a press conference, De Lima asked why Mega was able to pull out its equipment and software despite provisions in its BOT contract that it would turn these over to the bureau.

“The NBI now is starting on scratch. What happened to the 30-year-old contract? Why there was no transfer of technology to the NBI? The answers to these questions are what we need to know,” De Lima pointed out.

'We are now studying appropriate legal actions against Mega Data after it failed to comply with the provisions of the BOT scheme,” she added.

In a report submitted by De Lima, NBI director Lawyer Magtanggol Gatdula said that Mega entered into a contract with NBI to supply various computer, data capture, image capture and card production equipment and supplies to service NBI's data processing needs on June 4, 1984.

The contract of NBI with Mega was then modified on August 31, 1987 which indicated that Mega will be committed to transfer the ownership and possession of the clearance equipment of Mega after three years or upon payment for the P3 million clearance. Then after the transfer of ownership, the fee being paid to Mega shall be reduced. On 1989, the NBI extended and modified the two earlier contracts.

“The agreement was to continue the original intention of the parties in which Mega supplies certain equipment and NBI pays Mega for every clearance produced,”

Gatdula said that the contract saw several revisions but the BOT scheme was never scrapped from the contract. On the other hand, the NBI earlier reported that Mega had been operating under a build-operate-transfer contract for which it was reportedly earning around P5 million a month.

De Lima explained that Mega, prior to the expiration of its contract with the NBI, requested for an extension of their contract but it was denied due to the supposed “ numerous infractions” which was allegedly made by Mega Data in their contract with the bureau.