Gov’t spends P600m to digitize financial processes

MANILA, Philippines – How much does the government’s latest commitment to transparency cost? More than half a billion pesos.

This is the amount that the Aquino administration is pouring into an IT system that aims to reduce corruption among government agencies.

In a statement on Thursday, March 20, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced it released P600 million to put together the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), which will integrate “all public financial management processes.”

The processes include accounting, cash management, reporting and auditing, which are normally executed by the DBM, Commission on Audit (COA) and the Deaprtment of Finance-Bureau of Treasury (DOF-BTr).

GIFMIS will be “government-wide” and is a “browser-based application,” effectively making all financial processes and management automated online.

The statement said this project is in line with the transparency and accountability agenda of the Aquino administration. It is also expected to make financial transactions faster.

“GIFMIS is one of the keystones in the Administration’s larger structure of fiscal transparency and accountability in government. Because it’s web-based and updated in real time, all data in the system are easily tracked to ensure the integrity of our public financial management processes,” Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said.

“Even better is the fact that GIFMIS will vastly improve the efficiency of our fiscal operations. When budgeting, accounting, and auditing are accomplished faster, we’re also in a position to serve the citizens better.”

Going online

The DBM, the lead administrator of GIFMIS, aims to implement the new system this year.

“We’re getting GIFMIS off the ground, exactly as the President instructed. The whole system, once in place, will embed financial transparency in the day-to-day operation of government. It will likewise be a major instrument in our good governance efforts, especially with respect to public financial management,” said Budget Undersecretary and Chief Information Officer Richard Moya.

He called the system an “urgent governance requirement,” adding that transparency and accountability are dependent on integrating and digitizing financial processes.

The DBM said the money for the system was sourced from the E-Government Fund, which “supports major information and communication technology projects, including those for the government’s public financial  management initiatives.”

GIFMIS is the latest transparency tool initiated by the government. Early this year, Aquino launched what the government deemed as some of its most significant good governance initiatives including a Cashless Purchase Card (CPC) System for government agencies, and an Open Data portal to make government information readily available to the people.

The implementation of the system comes at a time when public confidence in government transactions suffered a blow from allegations of fund misuse by some lawmakers in connivance with government officials and bogus nongovernmental organizations.

The IT system is one of the priority projects under the 2011-2015 Philippine Development Plan (PDP). – Rappler.com