CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman reiterated her challenge to local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao to embrace digitalization in all forms of transactions and processes, emphasizing its vital role in good local governance and public financial management.
BUDGET Secretary Amenah angandaman delivers a message as keynote speaker of the Mindanao League of Local Budget Officers (MLLBO) Annual Convention in Cagayan de Oro City on October 26. (Photo courtesy of DBM’s Usapang Budget Facebook page)
Pangandaman, keynote speaker at the Mindanao League of Local Budget Officers (MLLBO) Annual Convention here on Wednesday, October 25, said that digital technology is the “greatest and most powerful tool” not just to improve the ease of doing business but against many forms of graft and corruption.
“The President underscored that the government must fully embrace digitalization to provide better service to the people through its vital frontline services and its backend functions,” Pangandaman said.
She revealed a P38.75-billion budget in the proposed 2024 national budget for digitalization, 60.6 percent higher than in 2023.
The allocation will improve bureaucracy and boost innovations, including free internet WiFi connectivity, a national broadband plan, a national government portal, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems, and infrastructure development.
“That's why we will repeatedly emphasize and continue to promote digitalization because it is what is needed in our time,” Pangandaman said, assuring that Mindanao won't be left behind.
Pangandaman said that during the last Philippine Economic Briefing in Davao City in August, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy told her that “more than 1,500 free WiFi sites have already been deployed in Mindanao, and about 1,200 digital transformation centers have been established in barangays to assist our locals.”
BUDGET Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, with Budget Undersecretary Wilford Will Wong, answers questions from the media during a press briefing at the DBM-Regional Office 10 in Cagayan de Oro City on October 26. (Franck Dick Rosete)
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Pangandaman said the MLLBO will try to capacitate local budget officers, including LGU planning officers and auditors, in plan formulation, budget crafting, implementation, procurement, and program management in LGUs.
On June 1, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order No. 29 strengthening the integration of the Public Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
The IFMIS, according to DBM, is a consolidated platform of digitalization used in public financial management processes, which starts with budget preparation, execution, accounting, auditing, procurement, and reporting.
Through the system, Pangandaman said the national government is targeting to instill fiscal discipline in implementing agencies, hasten government processes, provide services on time, and effective planning for the government’s spending priorities.
Pangandaman reiterated her call on LGUs to capitalize on digitalization by adopting and implementing IFMIS since this is not for government agencies alone.