As part of its yearend report, the ICT Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) introduced to the public on Tuesday, Dec. 10, four new components of the Integrated Government Philippines (iGovPhil), the country?s comprehensive ICT program.
Launched in June last year, the iGovPhil project has several programs that are now in the pilot implementation stage. Among these are the Public Key Infrastructure, email system, cloud computing, Web hosting, interoperability framework, Agency Records Inventory System, online payment system, project management application, and forms generation application.
At a three-day event organized by the ICT Office at the UP TechnoHub in Diliman, Quezon City, four new iGovPhil?s services were officially introduced:
? Archives and Records Management Information System (ARMIS) — ARMIS is a system for document management that will cover the entire document process, from creation to archiving to disposal. The system is based on the recommended process of National Archives of the Philippines and existing government policies.
? Project Management Information System (ProMan) — This service is a Web-based project management tool that will aid in managing the project from design to monitoring required reports. Phase one involves the customization of the project management application for use by participating government agencies to aid in their collaboration activities and project-based tasks.
? Forms Generator — A Web-based application that produces forms used by various government agencies. This toolkit generates electronic versions of the agencies? paper-based forms. It features a form designer, form renderer and shared service application registry. Government agencies will just provide the elements needed to be included in the form and the generator will provide a form according the specifications, making their tasks simpler and easier. The system also benefits the citizens who will get the forms they actually need to fill out.
? PhPay — a government online payment system, is an Internet-based electronic payment facility and gateway that will enable citizens and businesses to remit payments electronically to government agencies. It renders services through various delivery channels, which include debit instructions (ATM accounts), credit instructions (credit cards) and mobile wallets (SMS).
The ICT Office said infrastructure such as fiber-optic backbone and data centers are now being developed in major areas of the country. The agency said this is ?needed to interconnect all government agencies and provide platforms for cloud applications, collaboration and sharing resources.?
Richard Moya, undersecretary of the Department of Budget and Management, a partner of iGovPhil, said government agencies must trust in the e-government being pushed by the administration through the iGovPhil project.
?We spend P3 billion in paper and half-a-billion more in air-conditioning for the various independent data centers every year?. Interconnecting government agencies will save us billions in terms of time and money [through shared resources and paperless transactions],? said Moya in his keynote address.
As a way of creating an army of ?e-civil servants?, Moya also said the government is planning to buy 95,000 laptops for public sector employees using the government?s ?Digital Empowerment Fund?.
?You don?t have to procure them; they will fall on your laps,? he told the audience composed of officials of government agencies.
He said the plan includes buying 80,000 laptops a year until all national government employees from Salary Grade 4 and above will each have a laptop. The laptops will be replaceable every three years.
In August of this year, the ICT Office executive director Louis Casambre revealed that that the national government has allocated has P9 billion as budget for ?Digital Empowerment Fund? that can be tapped by public agencies to procure digital devices.
