City bent on pursuing e-governance
THE CITY Government is bent on pursuing programs to transform into an e-government through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other web-based telecommunication technologies to improve the delivery of public service.
“We have joined the bandwagon of voluntarily transforming into an e-government consistent with the national thrust to revolutionize local governance by making LGUs (local government units) electronically enabled with the overall intention of improving the delivery of public services, promote transparency in government transactions and increase public access to government information services,” Mayor Mauricio Domogan bared.
Spearheaded by the Management Information Technical Division under the City Budget Office, the city’s ICT program started with the citywide computerization program in the mid-90s.
To date, the city has spent more or less P50 million to install the basic ICT infrastructure with the MITD at the helm of mainstreaming ICT and developing the appropriate tools and applications for various critical and lifeline government services.
All of the programs are in accordance with the ICT strategic action plan covering the period 2013-2025 developed as the city’s egovernment transformation roadmap.
The mayor said that at present, the city has automated six basic operations in the city government.
Among them is the e-Business Permit and Licensing System (eBPLS), the automated processing of business permits which has a tracking system that can show the status of a business permit or license application and can easily generate reportorial requirements of the local chief executive and other city officials. It currently stores a database of 25,000 permitted businesses in the city.
Real Property Tax Collection System (RPTACS) is also included which automated the real property tax assessment and collection and provides an integrated information system for the offices of the city treasurer and city assessor avoiding irregularities in transactions. It has a database of 91,845 registered real property owners and 130,930 real property units.
Civil Registry Information System (CRIS), an automated registration and printing of various civil registry documents based on a database of birth, death and marriage which enables an annual average transaction of 16,000 documents; health Patient Information System (HPIS), a partnership project provided by the Wireless for Health (WAH) to manage patients’ health records and information for better patient management of the 16 district health centers which at present stores 200,000 patient records; online Building Permit Application (OBPA) has a pre-evaluation process where digital copies of plans, designs and cost estimates are uploaded for review before final copies are submitted for final processing. The digital review facilitates processing and spares applicants from submitting voluminous documents and personally lining up to wait. It is expected to be implemented within the year; integrated Surveillance System with CCTV installation
which was initially conceived for the central business district to monitor peace and order, traffic and transport management and disaster risk reduction and management.
To promote transparency in government transactions, the mayor said the city deployed working systems to facilitate inhouse and administrative operations covering personnel concerns, financial management, procurement, planning and budgeting through the following ICT programs: the city government website which was developed to provide online information about frontline services, and how these can be accessed from our city offices; leave administration system, an electronic employee leave processing system that has cut on the time and documentary requirements; e-payroll system which facilitates payroll preparation and introduced the ATM card for employees totally eliminating the long queues on paydays; Procurement Management and Information System (epmis) which focuses on the automation of procurement operations from planning, request for materials, issuance of purchase orders, bidding, delivery and payment. the systems’ main objective is to fast track the processing of requisitions that can be monitored regardless of the stakeholder’s location; the Sangguniang Panlungsod Legislative Management System, an automated tracking system from the crafting, searching, monitoring and downloading of ordinances and resolutions; e-budgeting System (EBS), a system for planning and budgeting deployed for the preparation of the 2018 budget; and the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), a database of employee profiles.
The city has two interactive systems in place that serve as avenues to access information, make queries and provide feedback to the city government: Online Public Assistance and Complaints Desk, an online communication via webchat that directly accepts requests as well as complaints. It provides a collaborative venue where the support may come from different offices or departments who can help or assist solve problems, issues or address concerns related to public governance. it has a feature of an offline mode to queue the posted public concerns and whenever live chat feature is not available and the e-Directory and Information Support Services (EDISS) which provides online services mainly for directory information services that act as digital yellow pages.
“We have seen the benefits of adapting ICT in our present systems. If we are to promise better and faster public services, we need to step up our current efforts to facilitate our transformation into an e-government to fully realize e-governance. The initiative puts us one step ahead of other cities and lgus and already aligns us with the national vision of a “Digital Philippines” now being aggressively advocated by the national government,” the mayor said. Aileen Refuerzo/Baguio City PIO