‘High-tech’ graft cost govt P1.2T

THE government had lost at least P1.2 trillion to “high technology” corruption involving the underdelivery, incorrect implementation and non-implementation of various Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in almost all local governments nationwide.

“The Commission on Audit [COA] is not technically capable to conduct a technical audit on all these ICT projects that were conceived with a good objective but implemented with selfish motives. With the President’s slogan of ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,’ it is high time that we do something about this unseen corruption,” said Jade Deocampo Deinla, an information technology expert who was a Commission on Elections consultant until he got into trouble with poll body chief Sixto Brillantes Jr.

The amount lost over the years to various ICT-related anomalies was almost equivalent to the entire government’s P1.4-trillion budget.

Deinla cited a previous study by the group of National Broadband Network-ZTE deal whistleblower Jun Lozada that ICT projects in the national government and in the more than 1,500 municipalities and cities were running into trillions of pesos up to this day.

“But nobody, no agency has the technical capability to audit these systems. Who checks the systems and the software? Who checks if the amount paid for certain systems was right? And who monitors these? Nobody,” he added.

He promised to provide The Manila Times with a list of ICT projects that may be riddled with corruption.

To stop the bleeding, Deinla supported Lozada’s call to standardize the ICT systems in government.

“A government ICT agency, for one, can forge a deal with COA for the conduct of a wide-ranging systems audit. The ICT is an invisible cost of government spending and the source of government efficiency or inefficiency. If not properly managed, it can be a source of corruption instead of being the primary source to prevent corruption,” Deinla stressed.

Rich cities such as Quezon, Makati and Manila, for instance, spend hundreds of millions of pesos for systems setup, upgrade and maintenance annually. Even smaller government units in far provinces have similar projects.

Audit

In a white paper entitled ICT Audit on e-Government, Deinla stressed that there should be a process of collecting and evaluating evidence of an organization’s information systems, practices and operations. The evaluation of obtained evidence determines if the information systems are safeguarding assets, maintaining data integrity, and operating effectively to achieve the organization’s goals or objectives.

“There is no regulating agency that evaluates the Terms of References of e-Government projects, especially for those that are self-financed by the agencies or those with foreign funding. Often, vendors approach the agencies with pro forma TORs that give advantage to the products they are plying,” a portion of the paper reads.

“This lack of oversight and regulation by highly qualified technical people provide the windows of opportunity for graft and corruption,” Deinla maintained.

The former Comelec consultant said he originally proposed the conduct of a systems audit in the poll body to find out if there were anomalies present especially in election-related computer projects. The proposal was thumbed down by top Comelec officials. Worse, Deinla was accused of bribery and was kicked out of the agency.

“E-government projects here in the Philippines are carried out in a very complex environment. The complexity is three-fold: political, organizational and procedural, and technical factors complicate these supposed innovative projects. Therefore, these projects that were already awarded become too difficult to implement and more often than not, were never completed,” he added.

DICT

Last week, the House of Representatives approved on second reading a bill seeking to create the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) that shall be the primary government entity to plan, promote and help develop the ICT sector, and ensure reliable and cost efficient communications facilities and other multimedia infrastructure and services in the country.

House Bill 4667, or the proposed DICT Act of 2011 aims to integrate the management of two diverse concerns, transportation and communications, into one department which is the Department of Transportation and Communications, and develop a Philippine information and communications technology at par with world class standards.

The measure cites the policy of the State to promote the utilization of ICT as a vital tool for nation-building and economic growth that is government-enabled, private sector-led, citizen-centric and market based. –JOEL M. SY EGCO ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR, Manila Times