Zambales municipalities sign e-governance 'covenant'

The participating municipalities include Masinloc, Botolan, San Antonio, and San Marcelino in Zambales. The covenant was signed last week at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center in Subic Freeport Zone, Zambales

Thirty-one municipalities have signed a covenant indicating their commitment to help each other implement e-governance, a representative of a Canadian International Development Agency-funded project said.

As a result of the "E-governance for Municipal Development (eGov4MD)" project, municipal officials have agreed to share skills and resources in the development of e-governance systems.

They have also agreed to pool finances to build a community of technical professionals who will assist local government units in implementing e-governance projects.

Robert Sagun, eGovernance project officer of the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) Philippine Branch, said that an agreement will be signed next month to deploy an electronic real property tax system to these 31 municipalities.

The participating municipalities include Binalonan, Calasiao and Rosales in Pangasinan; Aliaga and Talavera in Nueva Ecija; Capas and Paniqui in Tarlac; Minalin, Lubao, Masantol, San Simon, Magalang, and Guagua in Pampanga; Masinloc, Botolan, San Antonio, and San Marcelino in Zambales; Orion and Dinalupihan in Bataan; San Mateo in Rizal; Imus, Carmona, Gen. Mariano, and Gen. Trias in Cavite; Tiaong, Pagbilao, Mauban, Lucban, Atimonan, Catanauan, and Calauag in Quezon.

The municipalities have also agreed to support the activities of eGov4MD, Inc., a newly established non-profit association of municipal staff engaged in e-governance.

The covenant was part of a flagship program of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, Mayors Development Center, the CESO, the National Computer Center, and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.

The covenant was signed last week at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center in Subic Freeport Zone, Zambales. By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

Political leadership crucial in LGUs’ e-governance adoption

The e-governance project covered Pangasinan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Rizal, Cavite and Quezon.

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

A project that has been sending Canadian volunteers to help local government units become technology-savvy has found that strong political leadership and support remained crucial in the success of any e-governance project.

A project dubbed "E-governance for Municipal Development" of the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) has sent more than 20 Canadian volunteers to help train local government units in three regions since April 2007, according to Robert Sagun, e-governance project officer of the Canadian Executive Service Organization–Philippine Partnership Branch, in an interview with INQUIRER.net.

CESO is a non-profit organization that taps volunteer senior executive and technical expertise to provide management, technical and policy development assistance around the world, including the Philippines.

Hoping to promote better delivery of public services through the use of information technology, the project has found that political, organizational and human resource development issues have hampered the adoption of e-governance in municipalities included in the project.

E-governance is defined as harnessing technology to improve public service delivery.

Funded by the Canadian International Agency for Development, the CESO project trained and helped municipal employees deploy three revenue-generating, open source-based systems developed by the National Computer Center.

These systems include the Real Property Tax System, Business Permit and License System and the Treasury Operations Management System. CESO funded the deployment, Sagun said.

A total of 32 municipalities were chosen for the project. Canadian volunteers assisted three to four municipalities, where they spent a minimum of two weeks to train local government employees.

Sagun said officials from Orion, Bataan reported a 40-percent increase in business permit revenues during the first quarter of 2008 after deploying the Business Permit and License System.

"What we've seen is that the project's success was about the people and the organization," he said, pointing out that local government officials must champion such projects.

Sagun noted that the project was successful in municipalities where mayors and the treasury department heads were supportive. At least three municipalities have already deployed the Busines Permit and License System, with more planning to fully deploy the system, he said.

The project covered Pangasinan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Rizal, Cavite and Quezon.

This year, the project hopes to target at least 30 more municipalities.

The CESO project is also supported by the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, the Mayors Development Center, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Trade and Industry, among others, Sagun said.

Canadian organization to help RP with e-governance project

By Alexander Villafania - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Computer Center, along with two other local organizations, have signed an agreement with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) to implement the “E-Governance for Municipal Development,” which aims to improve local governance, reduce cost of operations and increase revenue generation.

The project, which is being implemented by the CESO in behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency, will also involve the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) and the Mayors’ Development Center, Inc. (MDC). These bodies identified the municipalities that will benefit from the E-Governance for Municipal Development project.

There will be over 40 recipient municipalities in Luzon, who will be given training on computer use to improve the operation of their respective facility.

Among the recipient provinces are Pangasinan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Cavite, Quezon and Rizal.

Recipient municipalities shall be assisted in being trained and implementing three local government unit system application software and these are the Real Property Tax System (RPTS), Business Permit and License System (BPLS) and Treasury Operations Management System (TOMS).

By improving the operations of local government units, they are expected to speed up processing of business permits and entice more potential investors to their respective provinces, while ensuring transparency and efficiency.

CESO representative Gale Arlene Lee said the initiative is to complement CESO’s small and medium scale enterprise development efforts in the Philippines by reducing, if not eliminating, unnecessary transactional costs to entrepreneurs.

The project also aims to enhance the E-Commerce Act of 2000, which requires all government agencies to use IT methods to improve their entire operational system.