The House committee on information and communications technology on Wednesday, Feb. 14, created a technical working group (TWG) that will fine-tune House Bill 262, seeking to create an E-Government structure in the public sector.
The E-Government is expected to create more valuable and meaningful services through interoperability and maximization of resources which are part of the powers and functions of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
The bill aims to lessen corruption by minimizing the human intervention components in government transactions and productivity, according to committee chairman and Tarlac representative Victor Yap.
Under the bill, the DICT shall establish and promote an E-Government Master Plan to encourage excellence in facilitating, developing, and enhancing all electronic government services and processes.
The E-Government Master Plan shall include, among others, the following programs:
? Philippine Government Interoperability Framework;
? Archives and Records Management Information System;
? Government Online Payment System;
? Citizen Frontline Delivery Services;
? Public Financial Management; and
? Procurement System
The E-Government Master Plan shall also include the following:
? Inventory and purchase of hardware and software of all government offices;
? Utilization of servers, network connections and data centers in all government offices;
? Security disaster recovery plans and archiving considering existing services and capabilities already available as well as future information systems; and
? Standardization of systems across government agencies to promote interoperability and database management
The DICT secretary is expected to spearhead all aspects of implementation of the E-Government Master Plan to catalyze the optimum use of ICT in government to expand and improve public services, government operations and capabilities.
Camarines Sur representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., author of the bill, defined E-Government as the ?utilization of ICT to improve or enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector.?
?In E-Government systems, government operations are supported by Web-based services and involves the use of information technology, specifically the Internet, to facilitate the communication between the government and its citizens,? said Villafuerte.
