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Friday, March 29, 2024

Solons support Romualdez plan on e-government

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Four legislators from the Bicol region have expressed full support for Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin G. Romualdez’s plan for the 19th Congress to speed up the administration’s digital transformation.

In a show of support for Romualdez, who is touted to be the next House Speaker, the legislators led by Camarines Sur. Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed their own version of a bill that provides for the development and interconnection of electronic government or e-government services.

Villafuerte said an e-government system covering all state agencies and corporations as outlined in House Bill 277 “will further improve the ease of doing business and burnish the country’s image as a top investment haven, while letting the people continue transacting official business without actually having to go to the various government agencies personally in the post-Covid 19 scenario.”

HB 277’s co-authors are his fellow Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata and Bicol Saro Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.

HB 277 has come on the heels of the filing by Romualdez and three more legislators of  HB 3 mandating all government agencies, including state-run corporations and local governments,  to switch to digital or Internet platforms for the delivery of more transparent and more efficient services.

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The bill (HB 3) authored by Romualdez with Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos and Tingog Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre mandates the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to be the principal implementer of the proposed E-Governance Act through a project management office (PMO) that would be organized within one year from the effectivity of the proposed law.

In HB 277, meanwhile, Villafuerte said, “the Marcos administration ought to fully utilize the newly created DICT to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in all state offices instead of having agency-specific applications.”

This measure, he said, will clear the way to “the establishment of effective E-Government plans that create more valuable and meaningful services through interoperability and maximization of resources, which are part of the powers and functions of the DICT.”

The E-Government Master Plan  has the following six major components:

• An interoperability framework to guide and govern basic  technical and informational interoperability of the ICT systems of all government agencies and corporations;

• An Archives and Records Management Information System for all government documents and records.

This will entail the digitization of paper-based documents and records and the development of systems that will manage the creation, routing, tracking, archiving and disposal of all official documents—while adhering to existing policies, laws and ISO standards;

• An Internet-based Government Online Payment System and gateway that will enable citizens and businesses to remit payments electronically to government agencies.

This will involve various delivery channels, including debit instructions (Automated Teller Machine or ATM accounts),  credit instructions (credit cards), and mobile wallets (short  messaging system or SMS);

• A Citizen Frontline Delivery Services that would facilitate business registration-related transactions by integrating all agencies involved in business registration.

Proposed for inclusion are  such agencies and firms as the  Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Securities and  Exchange Commission (SEC), Cooperative Development  Authority (CDA),  Bureaus of Internal Revenue  (BIR) and of Customs (BOC), Social Security System (SSS), Home    Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), Philippine Health Insurance Corp.(PhilHealth),  LGUs and other offices issuing  permits and licenses;

• A Public Financial Management system to harmonize such financial systems in government  as taxation, payment systems, accounting and  business registries; and

• A Procurement System providing online and real-time services encompassing all procurement processes involving bidding, contract agreements, and payment for services or supplies.

The four HB 227 authors said the adoption of these six components of the master plan would enhance the access to, and delivery of, government services to bring about efficient, responsive, ethical, accountable and transparent government service.

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