LGUs’ role in digitalization of gov’t services cited

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The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said local government units (LGUs) play a significant role in the advancement of the digital landscape in the country as shown in its experience in disbursing assistance to those affected by the lockdowns.

In his presentation at a webinar organized by PayMaya and USAID E-PESO DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya cited the difficulty in disbursing to intended beneficiaries the first tranche of the P97.74 billion financial assistance which took weeks to complete compared to the speed in which the P16.8 billion Social Amelioration Program (SAP) that was disbursed to t the 3.8 million families through their cash cards or EDM machines.

“So you can see here maybe the great difference between a manual payment, and a digital payment,” Malaya said.

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AS they are in the forefront, LGUs can deliver government services, process end-to end registrations and applications and implement SAPs by adopting new technologies and applications, according to Malaya.

He public key infrastructures (PKIs) such as digital/electronic signatures, e-receipts, etc. can also speed up processes in LGUs.

The challenges, however, is in the capacity of every LGU to determine and identify the intended beneficiaries for every locality.

Malaya also highlighted how online payment reduces red tape and the cost of doing business.

Legislations like the Anti-Red Tape Act has mandated government agencies to automate their processes which would include payment of taxes fees and charges.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has announced that 65 government agencies are currently using the electronic portals for various online services, and additional 180 are expected to be on board.

In the next few months, the agency is also promoting the use of barcodes, as a simplified method for online payment, which BSP-supervised financial institutions are using today.

Malaya acknowledged the Philippines is one of the early-movers in the digital payments since the introduction of “mobile money” in 2001.

However, the country remains to be heavily paper-dependent i.e., cash and check on various transactions.

Since 2013, the share of digital payments in the country was only about 1 percent by volume and 8 percent by value.

There is also a significant increase in payments transactions at 10 percent and 20 percent in value by 2018.

Malaya said 64 percent of payments made by the government are digital in 2018 from 54 percent in 2013; followed by individual at 12 percent and businesses at 5 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, one of the private sector initiatives, LGUs Embracing and Accelerating Digitalization (LEAD) was introduced at the webinar.

Spearheaded by Paymaya, LEAD aims to fully equip LGUs with end-to-end cashless payment solutions for better public service.

In a related development, the city government of Manila has further expanded its ca partnership with PayMaya which is deploying cashless payment to the newly launched vendor stalls near Manila City Hall and Divisioria.

The city has launched around 90 new vendor stalls that will be equipped with PayMaya quick response near Manila City hall and Divisoria can easily accept cashless payment to help prevent the spread of the virus.

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