Tags: Administration, General News, Politics
By Alexander Villafania
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – Computerization projects in the government have never been easily implemented nor well accepted. They are more often marred in controversy, often involving money. Just take the casess of the failed election computerization in 2004, ZTE-National Broadband Network deal, the National ID System, and so forth.
But there are a few successful modernization projects and some are led by good people. The late Emilia Boncodin, who passed away last Monday, was among those who have staunchly supported and pushed for the passage in 2003 of Republic Act 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act. Under this law, the high tech Government Electronic Procurement System (G-EPS) was created.
The G-EPS serves as a streamlined procurement system for all government-related transactions. It allowed quick delivery of products and remitted payments. The G-EPS’s best feature, however, is how it would prevent corruption in the procurement system as all procurement projects are centralized and made viewable to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), an agency Boncodin headed at that time.
During one of my stints as an infotech reporter for the now-defunct Metropolitan Computer Times, I had a chance to listen to Boncodin explain RA 9184 and how the G-EPS works. At that time, I had no knowledge of procurement principles nor did I know that the procurement process could be used for corruption. Boncodin stressed that the system requires all government offices to transact only with registered suppliers and those suppliers must issue the proper receipts and reports to the DBM electronically. This gave the DBM instantaneous information about the progress of government purchases.
Seven years later, the G-EPS is already running smoothly and is hosted at the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System website. That there are now 9,501 government offices registered to the site, along with 42,319 suppliers of various products. The site also includes many procurement requirements for government offices, including the amount as well as the projects awarded.
Boncodin was an accountant by profession so she knew that government officials must also be held accountable for their actions, just as much as executives in a corporate setting. As such, Boncodin and several other Cabinet members, who called themselves the “Hyatt 10”, quit their posts in 2005 in defiance of President Gloria Arroyo at the height of the Hello Garci scandal. This was the turning point for Boncodin’s work as a public official as she finally turned her back against a system of corruption that she was assigned to fight in the first place.
At the age of 55, Boncodin passed away. She left the G-EPS as her lasting gift. Hopefully, this will not be the last government project that will protect the country from corruption. As one blogger, University of the Philippines Diliman Student Councilor Bong Ong, also a former student of Boncodin said, “she has done her part, now let’s do ours.”
Boncodin’s wake is being held at the Sta. Maria Della Prada Parish in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.
Photo courtesy of Paper Crane Project.
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