The Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB), an agency attached to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has been awarded an ISO certification for its management systems and processes that have passed international standards and quality assurance, highlighted by its successful transition to full online licensing system in September 2022.
A Cube TIC awarded the ISO 9001:2015 certification to PCAB, attesting to the organization’s commitment to introduce changes into its operations as well as streamline requirements in licensing for the construction industry.
The only government agency in the country that has achieved an online end-to-end license processing, PCAB commenced its digital processing in June 2020 covering application and renewal for contractor’s licenses, as well as stand-alone government registration for government infrastructure projects.
PCAB radically shortened the process for application for renewal and new license from four weeks to four days, and cut down the documentary requirements from 24 to nine.
Application for joint venture licenses may also be procured in just one day.
The PCAB online portal includes streamlined requirements and full digitalization of licensing application available 24/7; payment through digital payment channels such as Paymaya/Maya, GCash, Landbank Linkbiz Portal, online interview for the new authorized managing officers and for newly nominated sustainable technical employees, real-time feedback for status application, downloading of digital license certificate, and license verification website for public utilization.
Also included in the portal is the newly launched “Pakyaw” license which caters to MSME and small-scale contractors.
Dr. Pericles Dakay, PCAB chair, said the next phase of development for PCAB involves customer service and data mining, as PCAB has broken the ceiling of 50,000 transactions as of September 2022.
“By yearend, we will also surpass the P350 million projected target this year. We shall prioritize better client feedback platform, and mining of statistics on contractors, their market shares in the Philippines and value of the construction work being done to be able to get a better picture of the industry and enhance our services further,” Dakay said.
Since the launch of the online portal in 2020, a significant increase in applications and transactions have been generated.
The total processed applications made through the PCAB Online Portal since its deployment from June 2020 until December 2021 was 45,359 applications.
With the launch of the online platform, PCAB’s processed applications from 2016 to 2021 totaled 136182, compared with 63,285 from 2010-2015.
This represents a difference of 72,897 or 115.18 percent increase.
From 2016 to 2021, there has been a marked increase in the number accredited contractors from 79,156 versus the accumulative total of 39,482 from 2010 to 2015.
This represents a growth of 39,674 new licensed contractors or 100.48 percent increase.
The computed net worth of PCAB licensed contractors for contracting fiscal year 2021-2022 totaled to almost P241.5 billion, compared to P235.4 billion and P213.6 billion in the previous years.
