Department of Information and Communications Technology ... old wine, new bottle

Just recently, I found out that Congress is expected to come out with a bill creating a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). This new department is supposed to take over the functions of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), an agency currently under the Office of the President.

It seems like a ho-hum piece of news, so what if the government is creating a new department, right? But there are a lot of underlying problems that need to be addressed in the implementation of this piece of legislation, in case it gets enacted into law.

Considering that the CICT has been in existence for several years now, it has an organizational infrastructure already in place to handle the functions of the new department to be created. It also has the personnel already in place. As such, the implementation of the law creating the new department will probably just entail changing the name of the CICT to the DICT, and other minor organizational reshuffling (of course it won't be as simple as that).

What then is the problem? The CICT, despite being a relatively young agency, has already been involved in a multi-million pesos fiasco. The “Telepono sa Barangay” or TSB project was started by the CICT in 1998, its aim was to install telephone systems in rural barangays in selected areas such as the Mountain Province, Benguet, Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, Quezon, Negros Oriental, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya and Misamis Occidental, and Cagayan de Oro.

The implementation of the project, in each of the abovementioned provinces or areas, entailed expenses ranging from Php 50,000,000 to Php 100,000,000 that is for each area or province. Of the 50 or so barangays targeted for the project, only 4 have been outfitted with a telephone system, but even these 4 barangays received defective equipment thereby rendering the telephone system inoperable. And millions of pesos have already been paid out to contractors despite the failure of these contractors to perform their corresponding obligation to install working telephone systems. And the CICT even proclaimed in its website that “All systems are now operational in provincial levels ...”

Was there a lack of internal checks within the CICT, was there a lack of trained personnel to oversee the project, and were there too many loopholes in the CICT’s standard procedure for awarding projects to contractors? These and other problems have to be addressed in the creation of the DICT, otherwise, this new department, which will be tasked to regulate information and communications technology in the country, which is a major factor in the continued economic development of the Philippines, will just be the same old stinkin' wine in a new bottle.

SOURCES:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=88597

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20071211-106218/Consolidated_DICT_bill_seen_by_next_week

For more information on the TSB project, check out: http://www.cict.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=94