COMMISSION on Higher Education executive
director William Medrano is asking his colleagues at CHED to
explain the reason behind the alteration of the original concept
of the government’s P500 million campus-based call center
project conceptualized to help create more jobs for college
graduates.
Medrano, in an 11-page document, alleged that
there were blatant irregularities committed in the process of
conceptualization and bidding of the project dubbed as the
Integrated Multi-Site Business Process Outsourcing-Incubation
Contact Centers (IMBPO-ICC).
In the document dated Aug. 29, 2007, Medrano
and officials of the Bid and Awards Committee and the legal
Division of CHED urged the agency’s chairman and commissioners
to shed light on why the following changes were made on the
original concept of the project: reduction of the number of
participating state colleges and universities (SUCs) from 16 to
5; approved funds should be used for infrastructure; only SUCs
with available building facilities were to be included in the
project; the questionable hiring of a project consultant for
P500,000 without bidding; and the questionable initial
disbursement of more than P75 million for the project.
A reliable source who requested not to be
named, said the P500 million budget was approved at a time when
Socio-economic Planning director Romulo Neri had taken over the
Department of Budget and Management after the resignation of
Emilia Boncodin and there was strict specification that no part
of the money would be used in the construction of
infrastructures.
The source, who joined the project as an
unpaid IT expert from its inception, to the alteration of the
concept and up to the anomalous bidding process, said ex-CHED
chief Carlito Puno’s insistence on the construction of new
buildings to house the call center project’s facilities could
have been one of the reasons why he was sacked and Neri assigned
to manage the implementation of the budget for call centers.
Neri was assigned as CHED officer-in-charge
on Aug. 15, 14 days after the official document came out calling
for a thorough review on the project.
Before Puno was moved to the government-owned
United Coconut Chemicals Inc., he said CHED had allocated at
least P300 million for the construction of call center buildings
in six selected SUCs this year, with the biggest chunk of the
budget going to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Other universities where a call center would
be built are Western Visayas State College of Science and
Technology, Pangasinan State University, Don Mariano Marcos
Memorial State University, Tarlac State University and
Technological University of the Philippines.
The source said he was asked by a friend to
give some pointers in several sessions with CHED officials about
the technological aspects of putting up a call center. "After I
was briefed how much the budget was, I was a bit overwhelmed.
Then the development of a concept started to be deliberated on.
As far as CHED is concerned, I was made to understand that the
agency will develop a curriculum designed for IT students who
would be future call center agents. While the curriculum was
already in place, CHED will at the same time put up call centers
in selected SUCs. That was the concept and plan that I knew
since the very start," he said.
"The internet-based call center is now being used by
Americans and Canadians who formed a group called JFK
Foundation. These are not only call center experts that I
suggested to CHED, to avail of their services but also experts
on the development of curriculum for call center management. All
these things I explained to Chairman Puno because I knew during
that time he doesn’t know how to use that huge amount of money,"
the IT expert said. – Ashzel Hachero
