The Quezon City government on Wednesday (June 16) said it is “seriously considering” terminating its contract with Zuellig Pharma Corporation after its vaccine registration platform experienced technical difficulties.
Zuellig’s eZConsult service experienced heavy traffic on Monday due to the high volume of vaccine registrants, which prevented residents from signing up for COVID-19 vaccination.
“We have issued an ultimatum to Zuellig to upgrade their system and provide all the deliverables by this Friday, June 18, as agreed in a meeting held last week. If not, we have no other choice but to contract another company that can do the job quickly and efficiently,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
“If the improvements promised to the city are not honored as is contained in the contract, we will initiate contract termination proceedings and file appropriate charges against them,” she added.
The city government is also eyeing to file damages against its service provider in case of their failure to meet contractual obligations by Friday. Technical problems with the platform had been occurring as early as late March.
“Kaya natin kinuha ang serbisyo ng eZConsult ay para mapadali ang proseso ng pagpapatala, ngunit ano ang gagawin natin kung ang sistema nila mismo ang ugat ng problema… They committed [to provide] a seamless service but they failed repeatedly,” Belmonte said.
The city government has already demanded liquidated damages from Zuellig in connection with the platform’s technical problems. –jlo#
