While I was browsing the Internet, I noticed that there are a lot of Philippine experiences in terms of e-government that to my mind are very significant and groundbreaking in terms of service and efficiency.
The Department of Budget and Management now publish in its own website the release of government funds.
This is very notable because with such a move, the possibility of graft and corruption was reduced to a nil. Before the publication of fund-releases in the Internet, notorious individuals were a dime a dozen, circulating in the different government offices promising the prompt release of their funding in exchange for some percentage (say 5% to as high of 10%) of their approved funds. With a single click of a mouse, such an opportunity is no longer in existence because the Department of Budget and Management already publishes the release of funds in the Internet promoting transparency. With such transparency in the release of funds, individuals with questionable aims are deprived of the opportunity to promise and to collect percentage from the government offices who awaits the release of their funds. The key word here in this Philippine experience is the concept of transparency.
In the last elections, the Commission on Elections placed voter information in its own website where information such as voter’s precinct was easily and readily available so as to make the act of voting easier and without hassle.
In addition to this experience, people who lack access to the Internet for such crucial information were aided by local radio stations (who have the access to the Internet) and were directed to their proper voting precinct. As a result of this move, a lesser commotion was avoided and the unannounced changes were quickly rectified.
The successful Edsa II was initially powered and propelled by the text-brigade- utilizing information derived from the Internet.
It is presumed that there is no longer a debate as to who is the text-capital of the world. The republic was the acknowledged text-capital of the entire planet simply because of the unique condition where "texting" your message is a lot cheaper rather than calling and conveying your message through a phone call. As a result of this condition, information about the senate impeachment trial was quickly disseminated and a call to protest was quickly organized leading to a change of political leadership, which is now commonly known as Edsa II.
The Philippine Customs now utilizes systems for custom payments, processing of clearance and releasing of shipments from customs control through the Internet.
In terms of perception, the Philippine Customs is commonly and traditionally viewed as a corrupt agency of the government. With this brilliant move, certain avenues for corruption were closed and the notion of bureaucratic transparency was advanced and promoted.
To my mind, these are concrete steps in the betterment of service in the government. Years from now, the effect of e-government would assume gargantuan proportions that in the end, there is no more room to move but to evolve for the better.
It must be noted however, that there is a slow adoption of Information and Communication Technology because of the high cost of establishing computer networks that would actually do the job of information dissemination. At the moment, it is foolish to talk about Internet access when lot government offices don’t even own Pentium class computers. And so, the cycle of expensive hardware against the cost of computerization is again laid to fore. Where will the government find the funding to propel e-government?
Another condition that must be thoroughly considered is that there are quite a lot of people who oppose the inertia of computerization (indirectly opposing, e-government). Given the fact that partial computerization and partial adoption of ICT promotes transparency, certain people feel threatened that their normal avenues for graft and corruption are shrinking by the minute. Thus, it is not a far-fetched idea that in the coming years, creative and corrupt individuals will sabotage and oppose the leap and progress that ICT promises.
The E-commerce law was already passed into law a couple of years ago. As such, the passage signals the attempt of the government to adapt to the changing tides and time. Unfortunately, in the present government set-up- the establishment of a paper trail is still the preferred avenue for government approval and government processing. Something really must be done to avert this trend so as to finally let the impact of ICT be felt by the bureaucracy and by the populace. Sooner or later, the choice between the advantages of ICT and tedious concept of paper trail will be palpable to everyone. Paper trails will no longer serve the purpose of documenting everything. Documentation can also be done through some other better means.
The other popular objection to the adoption of ICT is the misplaced fear of confidentiality of information. One would be surprised that many people still fear the unreliability of ICT. These are the very people who watched too many movies depicting and believing that with a single stroke of a key, precious information can be obtained effortlessly. The truth of the matter is that with the proper security procedure, there is no place more secure as a repository of information than the computer. With the prevalent usage of the Automatic Teller Machine and its timesaving convenience, the argument about confidentiality of information in the ICT seems silly if not downright foolish.
A lot of reasons could still be cited as to why there is a slow adoption to ICT. Fortunately, in a normal evolution of man, better and newer concepts almost always replaced the old. From the invention of the wheel to the recent advances in technology, changes will happen, invited or uninvited.
Suffice it to say that with the explosion of information coupled with the evolution of man, e-government is here to stay and will continue to offer itself as a better alternative to the way that man conducts his business.
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