Government projects online

For the past several days, all the local news networks, and perhaps even some of the international networks have been focused on the ongoing Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE deal featuring Mr. “Jun” Lozada.
A lot of people, including some of my friends, have been quite vocal about who they think is the more believable personality in the ongoing Senate hearings. I too have been guilty of such. But regardless of who is telling the truth in those Senate hearings, what is quite disturbing is the fact that this controversy would not have reached the public consciousness had it not been for Mr. Joey De Venecia’s expose.
Assuming Mr. Lozada’s accusations against Abalos and “FG” are true; we would not have known of such a major government IT infrastructure project had the government personalities involved in the NBN-ZTE deal been able to “moderate their greed”.
The 1987 Constitution states that, subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law, full public disclosure of all transactions involving public interest is State policy. In line with the abovementioned Constitutional provision, Congress should consider enacting a law requiring all government projects be made accessible to the public through the Internet.
Its implementation will not require a large chunk of public funds as it merely requires content creation. A lot of government agencies already have their own Internet access and websites, thus the infrastructure is already there. These agencies simply need to be trained on how to create and standardize content. The government need not disclose the entire paper trail of the project, simply the final agreement.
This will help further transparency in government and as such it will build public confidence in the national government. Knowing where their taxes go is a big confidence booster to taxpayers. This may also encourage the “moderation of greed” as totally absurd project costs won’t be easily missed by millions of Filipinos who have Internet access.