House of Representatives deputy speaker and Ilocos Sur second district representative Kristine Singson-Meehan has filed a bill calling for the establishment of an e-government framework, which would entail the use of information and communications technology (ICT) by the government to bring about efficient, ethical, accountable and transparent government service.
Singson-Meehan said her House Bill 11856, or the proposed “E-Government Act,” supports the government’s efforts of using and taking advantage of ICT to raise efficiency and productivity in the delivery of public service.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, she said the government was forced to innovate to continue providing the basic needs of Filipinos, and people began to appreciate the convenience and ease of availing of government services digitally, remotely, and online.
The bill tasks the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to create and promote an E-Government Master Plan to encourage excellence in facilitating the enforcement of all e-government services and processes.
The master plan would include programs, such as:
- Philippine Government Interoperability Framework;
- Archives and Records Management Information System;
- Philippine Government Online Payment System;
- Citizen Frontline Delivery Services;
- Public Financial Management;
- Procurement System;
- Inventory and purchase of hardware and software of all government offices;
- Utilization of servers, network connections and data centers in all government offices; and
- Security, disaster recovery plans, and archiving considering existing services.
The DICT secretary would head the e-government initiative and its master plan implementation, according to the bill.
