There are more questionable ICT projects in the local government units and other national government agencies, said Efren Ricalde, president and CEO of GeoSpatial Solutions Inc(GSI), a local firm that has worked on government ICT projects. GSI is a local independent software vendor which has been working with IBM Philippines.
The NBN project, which was intended to upgrade the government telecommunications network of the Telecommunications Office, was tainted with irregularities and alleged bribery of highly placed officials.
“These shady deals are happening everyday. ICT is now being used as procurement process not to deploy ICT but to generate corruption," Ricalde said, adding that he was aware of several projects in government that had questionable intentions.
Many ICT projects in local government units and national agencies are not scrutinized because of the lack of checks and balances in government, he said.
Ricalde added that these anomalous ICT projects usually feature tailor-fit terms of references provided by favored suppliers. He said there are no checks and balances in local government ICT projects, which makes it more difficult to monitor anomalous deals.
Ricalde was among the attendees of a workshop conducted to validate findings of the E3 (E-governance for Effectiveness Efficiency) project on Public Private Partnership.
During the workshop, government representatives admitted that there are inadequate terms of reference in ICT-related projects because they lack the resources to create one. In most instances, the TOR is dictated by suppliers, thus projects become “supplier-driven.”
The E3 is a project under management and technology consulting firm BearingPoint. Bearing Point has won the bid to implement the E3 project under a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Erwin Oliva
Quelle/Source: INQUIRER, 06.03.2008
