LTO starts shift to new IT system

The Land Transportation Office (LTO), which is in the middle of a legal battle with its IT provider, Stradcom, has started preparing for a transition to a new contract.

In a press statement, the LTO said it is in the process of establishing a more efficient information technology (IT) system that would effectively serve the public.

With just 17 months to prepare before the contract with Stradcom ends in 2013, LTO chief Virginia Torres said the agency has already started initial discussions with the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) and Public-Private-Partnership Center (PPPC) Executive Director Philamer Torio to design the framework for the new system under the PPP.

She said the framework includes the bidding process for the new contract and the transition and turnover of the system to ensure that public service would have minimal or no interruption at all.

“The activities and decisions of the LTO in the next 17 months would translate to the quality of its core services for the succeeding decade,” Torres said in her presentation to Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas.

She added that experiences of LTO in the past decade would dictate that the new PPP project, the interest of the government and the public it serves should be protected “in every single step of its implementation.”

The LTO said it would work with Neda and PPPC during the transition, including the drafting of the terms of reference (TOR), procurement and bidding process for the new contract and other related transition and turn-over activities.