Arroyo approves P1-billion e-Government fund

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the release of the 1-billion-peso e-Government Fund that will be used to pursue IT-related government projects.

The e-Government Fund was part of the General Appropriations Act for 2005, which was earlier approved by the Senate three weeks ago. The fund's creation was recommended by the Department of Budget and Management.

Senator Manuel Roxas III initially wanted to fine-tune the e-Government Fund which he insisted should go directly to recipient institutions and should not be managed by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

National Computer Center (NCC) Director General and CICT Commissioner Tim Diaz de Rivera told reporters that the CICT identified five government projects that will be the main recipients of the 1-billion-peso budget. He said the CICT presented these projects as an assurance to Senator Roxas that the e-Government Fund would be properly allocated to the recipient agencies.

He noted that one of the provisions in their proposal to Senator Roxas includes equal distribution of 200 million pesos to each of the government IT projects.

The projects include the CICT's Community e-Centers; the Business Name Registration System of the Department of Trade and Industry; two projects of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the local government information portal and the public safety information portal.

The fifth project is what Diaz De Rivera calls the "harmonization of government ID numbers," similar to but not as wide-scale as the Malacañng proposed national ID system.

Diaz de Rivera said the CICT would form an oversight committee to determine how the amount would be disbursed to the recipient agencies.

NCC Directors Tess Roberto and Lorna Sales will head the oversight committee and the project management group to ensure that government IT projects would properly be implemented.

He said they are still evaluating ways to disburse the money particularly since there are still other government agencies that are in need of funding for their IT projects. These agencies include the National Telecommunications Commission and the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board, Diaz de Rivera said.

The 1-billion-peso fund is a follow-up to the 4-billion-peso e-Government Fund allocation first approved by President Arroyo three years ago. Back then, it was Fortunato De la Pena who headed the oversight committee that distributed the project to more than a dozen government IT projects.

De la Pena is Undersecretary of the Department of Science and Technology and was once a director of the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council, the body that later became the CICT.