Talisay soon to have "interactive" website

CEBU, Philippines – The Talisay City council during its regular session yesterday morning approved on first reading a proposed ordinance which seeks the creation of a "comprehensive" and "interactive" website.

"It shall be the purpose of this Ordinance to promote transparency in governance in the City of Talisay, to prevent graft and corruption and to ensure wider public access to in-formation about all and every transaction involving the City of Talisay and the faster and more efficient delivery of government services to the public," read a portion of the ordinance.

Minority City Councilor Romeo Villarante, author of the law, quoted Section 2 of Republic Act 9485 which provides that, "the State shall maintain honesty and responsibility among its public officials and employees, and shall take appropriate measures to promote transparency in each agency with regard to the manner of transacting with the public, which shall encompass a program for the adoption of simplified procedures that will reduce red tape and expedite transactions in government."

This new website, once established, will not only improve transparency and accountability in the government, but also "deepen the practice and substance of democracy through enhanced citizen and," said the resolution, which was endorsed by Villarante to the council yesterday.

Under this Proposed Ordinance 2010-9-2 or the "Talisay City E-Governance Ordinance", the city's Bids and Awards Committee, the general services office and other related local bodies and departments are required to submit all the lists of procurement of supplies and services and all existing contracts and public works, biddings including project proposals from different bidders and bidding requirements and as well as the names of successful bidders together with their proposals to the E-Governance Secretariat for posting at the website.

It is now the department heads who will check the daily and weekly updates of the website in line with their respective departments.

Failure to do their assignments will also correspond to "appropriate sanctions," as stipulated in this ordinance.

This new site will carry E-Government Services namely the Government-to-Citizen (G2C), the Government-to-Business (G2B), the Government-to-Employee (G2E), and the Government-to-Government (G2G).

Under the G2C, for example, this includes information dissemination to the public, basic citizen services such as license renewals, ordering of birth/death/marriage certificates and filing of income taxes, and others.

The city has an existing website (www.talisaycitycebu.gov.ph), but it does not carry such services, and is not being updated.

Villarante's proposed ordinance also provides for the creation of an E-Governance committee tasked to administer and oversee the website.

This committee will be chaired by the mayor or "his authorized representative" or the public information officer.

It will also have one representative each from the council, the business sector and the accredited people's organization.

The proposal has been referred to the committee on Laws for public hearing. (FREEMAN)