President’s ouster row, ASA Phl gives side (3)

The third part of the unexpurgated reply of ASA Philippines to the series of articles that appeared from 5 to 11 November based on interviews of former ASA Philippines President and chief executive officer Kamrul Tarafder and documents he provided are as follows:

Kamrul: “Thereafter, on 21 October 2023, Simon’s IT firm, Jyosna, fell victim to a cyber-attack with a ransom demand. The cyber-attack was focused solely on the software licensed by one of its many clients, the ASA Foundation. Jyosna at the time had just completed uploading the superior version of the ATMOS software platform meant to cater to the pressing regulatory requirements of the ASA Foundation.

While the technical implementation of the changes was successful, certain individuals inside ASA, led by Eric Gotuaco and Richard Dee were against the same as they were creating their program/software intended to replace Jyosna’s software.

Gotuaco and Dee were incumbent trustees of ASA but not directly connected to ASA’s IT governance or operations.

Incidentally, on 3 November 2023, ASA’s Board resolved to create an IT Committee and Gotuaco became its chairman.”

ASA Philippines: The insinuation that the cyber-attack on Jyosna was “focused solely” on the software licensed by the Foundation is an attempt to divert attention from the real issue of the incident. Instead, the critical question to be asked is why; after claiming to have completed the upload of the superior version of the ATMOS software platform including hosting in a newly contracted Cloud arrangement, it nevertheless fell victim to a cyber-attack.

The incident raised serious concerns about Jyosna’s ability to meet the Foundation’s pressing regulatory requirements and whether the substantial costs incurred in retaining Jyosna remain justified.

The alleged “upgrade” of the ATMOS software platform was undertaken without the approval of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Mr. Kamrul unilaterally sanctioned the upgrade of the ATMOS software platform, claiming that the upgrade was necessary to comply with the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) Computerized Accounting System (CAS) certification.

A perusal of internal communications regarding the upgrade of the ATMOS software platform sent from May 2023 onwards would show that it was being undertaken under Mr. Kamrul’s sole direction. Mr. Kamrul exploited the BIR requirement to compel the Foundation to upgrade the platform, even though the Foundation had been using the old version for one to two years already without the BIR CAS certification.

Contrary to claims in the Articles, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees discussed and unanimously approved plans on 5 April 2023, to develop its own IT systems to reduce dependence on Jyosna. This coincided with Mr. Kamrul informing Ambassador Dee about Mr. Simon’s plan to start a new for-profit microfinance company.

In fact, an ad hoc IT Committee was convened by Mr. Gotuaco with the assistance of Mr. Al Villarica, an IT consultant, in order to explore the potential purchase of the ATMOS software and the possibility of entering into a long-term servicing contract with Jyosna.

Thus, there was no internal collusion among individuals to replace Jyosna’s software. The statement that Mr. Gotuaco and Mr. Dee were not directly connected to ASA’s IT governance or operations is utterly false as they had been supporting Jyosna and Mr. Simon in the contracting and launch of ATMOS and were fully engaged in discussions on the future of ATMOS infrastructure supporting ASA.

To secure full control and access to the Foundation’s IT infrastructure, discussions took place between the Foundation and Mr. Simon regarding the potential purchase of the ATMOS software platform and the possibility of entering into a long-term service contract with Jyosna. However, this did not come into fruition, as the Foundation was advised by its IT consultants not to enter into the agreement. (To be continued)