STONECPS

As defined by World Bank:

“E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses and the other arms of government.”

In my own definition, E-governance is the use of information and communication technology by the government to provide reliable, fast, and efficient services to its citizens.

Will e-governance help curb corruption? Yes, I think it can help lessen corruption but I don’t think it can totally eradicate it.

While I was doing some readings about E-governance in the Philippines, I realized that the implementation of E-government dates back to 1971 when the National Computer Center (NCC) was established and has been designated as the primary agency in the government with the responsibility of directing IT use for national development and rationalizing computerization in the country. [1] A number of our government agencies already have a website in place but most of them is geared towards information dissemination and does not really provide front-line services where citizens can obtain government services online without the need to deal personally with a government employee. That is why, corruption, bribery and red tape is still evident in most of our government agencies.

If only our e-government system can be enhance wherein an effective front-line e-government service is implemented where citizens can easily gain access to government services online like applying for a driver’s license or a passport or paying taxes, then corruption can be lessen.

I remember when we are processing the transfer of title for the house and lot that we bought; it took us more than five months to finally be able to transfer the land title to our name. Red tape is really evident in the different government agencies that we dealt with and there was even one staff from BIR who manage to casually offer faster processing if we pay the right amount (bribe).

In this scenario, our papers have been passed from one government agencies to the next (like BIR, Registry of Deeds, etc) where we have to deal with different government staff. If E-governance can provide for the integration of government agencies, then information can readily be accessed by the government agencies and citizens, thereby reducing the process flow which can therefore reduce bribery, corruption and red tape.

Also, if our E-government provides the public easy access to government processes and information, then all government transactions will be transparent to the public like bidding, budget, etc. This can help reduce corruption since the public can easily track any unlawful act that is being done by our government officials. Say for example, the ZTE scandal. If only the public can monitor the bidding process that any contractor must undergo before getting a contract from the government, then ZTE anomalies would have been avoided. Since the public can easily compare bids submitted by different contractors, our government officials would then think twice before they try to get kickbacks from the different projects or if they try to award the contract to a contractor whose contract price is way too much higher compared to other contractors.

I think, E-governance can just be use as a tool to help lessen corruption but not totally stop it because at the end of the day, it still boils down to the ethics and values that is being uphold by our government officials. No matter how powerful the tool is, no matter how sophisticated the technology used to implement E-government is, corruption, bureaucracy, and red tape will still be evident if our government officials will still prefer to be unethical just to keep their bank accounts loaded.

1. www.digitalphilippines.org