City government’s digitalization seen to reduce corruption

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez said the digitalization of the transaction system of the city government is seen to reduce graft and corruption.

Benitez in a press conference Monday showed to the media the digitalization of the Office of the Building Official (OBO) – the first department to undergo the process.

“This is the department that I get a lot of inquiries about,” he pointed out.

OBO is one of the controversial departments of the city government that caters to applications for building and occupancy permits.

Benitez said, “This is our road to the digitalization of government transactions for us to be able to put into the digital platform the services coming from the local government.”

He added, “So we are doing it step by step starting from one department nga damo sang inquiries which is the OBO.”

Benitez said this “contactless system” can address the issue of fixers thus reducing graft and corruption.

The system eliminates the “contact between stakeholders and alleged fixers as they have to transact through the computer.”

“This way we can eliminate fixers and address the graft and corruption issue,” Benitez said.

He also pointed out that personnel manning the OBO can be changed but there is no assurance that whosoever will take over will not be corrupt.

Benitez emphasized that this system is “madasig, madula ang mga fixers, this is one way of addressing the issue.”

Benitez also said that the system for paying the supplier is still being reviewed in order to streamline the process and meet the “30-day paying time” he promised.

He said a system is being worked out and will be tested next week.

It can be recalled that Benitez said he received a lot of complaints from suppliers that the city government was taking too long in paying them.

“They don’t want to do business with the city government because of this,” he lamented.