"There are no more excuses in delaying the transformation of our national and local government systems."
"There are no more excuses in delaying the transformation of our national and local government systems."
It’s National Heroes’ Day but unlike the traditional parades and patriotic celebrations during normal times, we will have to make do with a virtual observance of this holiday through whatever default device we use for catching our favorite public affairs programs. Perhaps, too, we can try to enjoy the holiday the best we can under our respective quarantine restrictions.
Boomers like me grew up with TV, radio, and print media as our main source of news and entertainment. These analog modes of mass media and communications have been overtaken by digital technologies that give direct and personalized access to all kinds of information and all kinds of services on demand to anyone with access to a smart device and broadband signal.
Fast and reliable broadband service is no longer just a value-added service reserved for corporate use and can-afford netizens. It is now a critical platform that has proven its value as a safe and reliable medium for all communications and business transactions, and of course entertainment. Sparked by the effects of the pandemic, society’s accelerated shift to cloud technology is an opportunity to overhaul the processes of all industries but most importantly, to digitally transform the inefficiencies and corrupt-prone bureaucracy of the whole government to a responsive and transparent ecosystem of public services.
The promise of stopping corruption, or at least minimizing it, has become a standard campaign promise of all politicians running in each election. These politicians include our President. The raging corruption scandal in PhilHealth and other allegations of corrupt practices are not helping the people’s confidence. After all, billions have been spent on Bayanihan 1 and even more billions have been allocated in Bayanihan 2’s COVID-19 interventions. A new promise was recently made by the President saying, “I will hold myself responsible for this sole and solemn duty of answering for and on behalf of the executive department of all the funds that were spent in the fight against COVID.”
In the latest virtual round table discussion themed “Fighting the Pandemic of Corruption” hosted by Stratbase ADR Institute (ADRi), Transparency International Philippines and Democracy Watch Philippines, both anti-corruption experts, agreed that digitizing government processes and data would be an effective weapon to fight corruption.
Professor Dindo Manhit, President of Stratbase ADRi, said that COVID-19 has given governments the opportunity to skip accountability measures and democratic procedures under the guise of emergency powers.
"Now that the value of technology as a productivity tool for communication, collaboration, and efficiency has been proven, our government must now harness digital technologies as a weapon against corruption. Fast development of our digital infrastructure now becomes a critical element of our recovery strategy," Manhit said.
Stratbase ADRi Trustee and Program Convenor and Senior Fellow of the De La Salle Institute of Governance pointed out that the lack of digital tools has been a real constraint for the government to really address the distribution of relief services. He agreed that there is a need to go digital and to invest in digital infrastructures for connectivity and, most importantly, for the government’s capacity for nationwide data governance.
Correspondingly, Professor Heidi Mendoza of the Ateneo School of Government, and who is former commissioner of the Commission on Audit, pointed out that digital tools should not be complicated. She emphasized the importance of data-mining techniques as a correct way of analyzing the data to ensure the integrity of the data that would result in useful reports.
“Data governance simply means that bringing together all those available data within the reach of the government and having a meaningful connection among this data so that we can easily analyze, and we can mine the data.” Mendoza said.
Fighting corruption with ICT is not new. With the current advances in cloud-based solutions for e-governance, there are no more excuses in delaying the digital transformation of our national and local government systems.
According to a 2016 World Economic Forum report, “Aside from serving as prerequisites for democracy, access to information and transparency are key tools in the fight against corruption that lead to openness and a level playing field for both governments and markets. The emergence of these tools has the potential to push forward the anti-corruption agenda through revolutionizing methods of corruption detection, prevention, and analysis.”
But first, we need a nationwide digital infrastructure to deliver reliable connectivity to everybody.
The new joint memorandum circular led by the Department of Information and Communications together with the Anti-Red Tape Authority, the Department of Interior and Local Government and six agencies involved in the permitting of passive communications towers will hopefully solve the eight-to-12-month delays in securing permits to 16 days and make a dent in the 50,000-tower backlog that’s been choking broadband access and speeds for many administrations.
Let’s hope this works.