DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman (File photo)
MANILA – The Public Financial Management Committee (PFMC) has approved the adoption of an integrated information and communications technology (ICT) solution that allows a transparent way of monitoring the disbursements and appropriation of public funds.
The PFMC is composed of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Commission on Audit (COA).
In a press release, the DBM announced that the PFMC approved the adoption of the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) that facilitates the generation of vital information on all aspects of government financial transactions, to be made publicly accessible through information technology.
An integral part of the IFMIS is the Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS), a web-based, fully-automated and centralized database that will facilitate the generation of vital information on all aspects of government financial transactions and serve as an online ledger where transactions are mapped in real-time from purchase to payment.
“Through this digital transformation program and the development of a convergent hub, we will be able to have real-time and consolidated reports, achieve efficiency of government systems, ease of doing business and sustainability of systems and establish conditions that would help reduce corruption and poverty incidence,” Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.
She said the PFMC drafted a proposed Executive Order (EO) to direct all departments, agencies, and instrumentalities including government-owned and controlled corporations to adopt and implement IFMIS in the processing of government financial transactions.
The new EO updates EO No. 55 which aims to direct the integration and automation of all government financial management systems to make them more effective.
“With the transition to the full adoption of IFMIS, we hope to secure the digital transformation objectives in our 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and achieve not only transparency and accountability, but also bureaucratic efficiency, sustainability and, ultimately, economic growth through proper use of technology,” she said.
The PFMC likewise adopted the administration’s draft of the proposed Progressive Budgeting for Better and Modernized (PBBM) Governance Act which seeks to institutionalize public financial management principles for best practices in cash budgeting.
“All these will move us closer to our socioeconomic goals of bureaucratic efficiency and sound fiscal management,” she added.
Pangandaman has been very vocal about using digital technology to pursue public financial management reform agenda.
In his first State of the Nation Address last July, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. vowed to implement bureaucratic efficiency and sound fiscal management with the goal of lifting more Filipinos out of poverty.
Transforming procurement policies, processes
Meanwhile, Pangandaman expressed confidence that the government can transform its procurement policies and processes through the use of technology.
"We still have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the public and meet international standards of procurement. But I truly believe that with sincerity in service, a focused determination to improve, and with the proper use of technology and digitalization for efficiency and transparency, we can transform procurement policies and processes to be a mechanism that will thrust forward and truly help us achieve our Agenda for Prosperity," she told members of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) and Inter-Agency Technical Working Group (IATWG) in the conduct of their Year-End Meeting on Monday.
Pangandaman commended the GPPB-Technical Support Office (TSO), under the leadership of Executive Director Atty. Rowena Ruiz, for promoting the Philippine government’s public procurement reform agenda.
Ruiz said government procurement reform initiatives are imperative "to promote streamlined, innovative and agile and responsive procurement for all procuring entities and stakeholders.”
Currently, the GPPB spearheads the implementation of the Green Public Procurement (GPP) Roadmap which aims to integrate green choices in public procurement and to ensure sustainable management and use of natural resources by 2030.
The GPP is a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle. The strategy of the GPP is to integrate green practices harmoniously into the existing procurement processes.
"Coupled with our initiatives to digitalize government processes, records and databases, this would hopefully help us realize our shared aspiration to take the Philippine procurement regime to the next level," Pangandaman added.
The GPPB-TSO also has lined-up its fiscal year 2023 Action Plan that supports the primary mandates of the GPPB on policy-making, capacity development and procurement monitoring. (PNA)
