Of digital footprints and transparency: E-government maturity and corruption in the Philippines

• Main Author: Villanueva, Prince Aian G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2016
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5214
• Institution: De La Salle University

Why has corruption in the Philippines exacerbated despite efforts from the state to curb it? Why have governmental reforms seemingly failed in addressing issues of transparency and accountability? These raise several questions about the strength of anticorruption institutions and mechanisms and therefore of governance reforms of the state. In an attempt to understand the curious relationship of the Philippines with corruption, the study looked at the impact of automation on two important aspects of governance: elections and education. Research on e-governance document the import of ICT use and automation in the government in the reduction of opportunities for corruption. Similarly significant is the organizational capability, including the state of human and financial resources, leadership and culture, of the agencies to carry out far reaching information systems policies and programs. Thus, employing the e-government maturity framework by Kim and Grant (2010) and the extant literature on the e-government- corruption nexus, the paper assesses the cases of the Philippines Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and the Department of Education (DepEd). Using data culled from secondary sources and interviews, the results provide that While both agencies of government have introduced automation in the fulfillment of their mandates and in the improvement of transactions within their offices, the COMELECs efforts lag behind those of the DepEd despite the presence of technological breakthroughs. The state of human and financial resources and that of leadership and organizational culture in these institutions perhaps point as well to their readiness in implementing far-reaching information and e-government systems. Only a capable agency can successfully draft, create and implement a system that not only delivers basic services to its constituents efficiently but also one that has the capacity to lessen or minimize the possible occurrence of corruption in these transactions. With the creation of a separate Department of Information and Communications Technology under the PNoy administration through Republic Act 10844, much is expected in the transformation of the e-government programs and their implementation in each of the agencies of the government.