Gatchalian: ‘Digitalization’ to curb corruption in gov’t
WITH the continuing pervasiveness of “widespread” corruption in the government, Senator Win Gatchalian is eyeing to pursue policies that mandate the shift to a digital government.
This means accelerating digitization and “digitalization” efforts in government processes and transactions, including the collection of tax payments and other regulatory fees.
“Hindi na kailangan pang pumunta sa mga tanggapan ng pamahalaan at pumila. Dito nagsisimula ang problema. Basta may pila sa mga transaksiyon sa gobyerno, asahan na natin na may mga ‘fixer’ at alam niyo na kung ano ang nangyayari kapag may mga fixer,” said Gatchalian.
“All government collections should be paperless or done through electronic means. It’s high time that we push the digital transformation of government services,” he added.
It’s also high time, the senator said, to “restore” the level of trust and confidence of the public to those in government and uphold the dignity of civil servants.
Gatchalian made the call to address extortion and other corruption charges hounding some alleged erring Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) personnel.
Pending before the Senate is the “Full Digital Transformation Act of 2020,” which mandates all government offices, agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, instrumentalities, and all local government units to adopt a digitalization strategy to facilitate efficient delivery in accordance with the Republic Act No. 11032 or the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018”.
The proposed measure mandates the creation of a “Digital Transformation Department” within a government agency or office, which will provide a system that will allow and promote coordination among various departments or offices to ensure that workflows, responsibilities, and accountabilities are properly tracked to enable the transacting public to know the status of their requests at any given time and design service processes and procedures that will promote efficiency and sense of expediency in the government.
“We can be assured of an expeditious and efficient mode of government collections while, at the same time, the public will be assured of convenience and transparency in their dealings with government agencies. Ang mga mawawalan ng kita ay ang mga tiwaling kawani ng gobyerno,” he ended.
