BSP on Nat’l ID row: AllCard deal canceled

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it has complied with the rules of procurement for national IDs linked to AllCard Inc., adding that it has not been flagged by the Commission on Audit (CoA) for any related issue.

The BSP issued the statement amid delayed delivery of national IDs which are designed to ease citizens’ transactions with the government and private companies, including banks, through a single, uniform physical and virtual card.

The BSP said AllCard Inc. failed to fulfill its commitment after PSA’s Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Council accepted its bid for the contract on national IDs.

“The BSP did not subcontract the activity [or printing] to AllCard Inc. BSP personnel conducted the operation, while ACI provided equipment, raw materials and technical support,” the central bank said.

Subcontracting belied

“Unfounded questions about subcontracting may be diverting attention from the actual issue: AllCard’s failure to fulfill the contract approved by the PhilSys Council,” BSP continued.

BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said the central bank already started looking for a new supplier.

The BSP stressed it followed the Agency-to-Agency Procurement Guidelines under Section 53.5 of the implementing rules of Republic Act No. 9184 regarding its partnership with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to print the national IDs using the equipment from AllCard Inc.

“CoA, which reviewed the transactions of BSP, did not include any findings related to subcontracting in its BSP Annual Review report. This is different from CoA’s audit of PSA, which some parties are citing in their allegations and comments against the BSP,” the central bank said.