The deadline for submitting eligibility documents for the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) P650-million IT modernization project has been moved to November 18 from October 28.
The Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service opened on October 16 the submission of documents for a system integrator that will design, implement, operate and maintain the Integrated Enhanced Customs Processing System (IECPS) and the National Single Window (NSW).
Leo Morada, chief executive officer of BOC-accredited value-added service provider Cargo Data Exchange Corp. and PortCalls columnist, said it is “not unusual for interested parties to request for more time to prepare the documentation required” for a big IT project.
The extension, he added, could be requested if short notice was given to interested parties, for instance.
The project has two components: Design, implementation, operation and maintenance of the IECPS; and development and operation of the Philippine NSW Phase 2 project. It will include providing implementing and consulting services.
The project will replace BOC’s electronic-to-mobile (e2m) system, which stakeholders have complained of being inefficient. Meanwhile, the second phase of the NSW, which was supposed to be rolled out this year, was stalled when reforms within the BOC kicked off late last year.
The IT project aims to introduce a fully electronic, paperless, and human contact-free processing of Customs transactions, while allowing traders a single submission entry for data and information. For the BOC, it will enable a single and synchronous processing of data and information as well as a single decision-making point for Customs release and clearance of cargo.
Earlier, Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla said that by the second half of 2015, BOC “will have a much better (and) new electronic processing system which will have a lot of functionalities that it (e2m) doesn’t have now”. The new system is also expected to shorten shipment processing time. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
