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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:57:00 03/11/2008
MANILA, Philippines--While national government agencies have their
respective IT projects, what is lacking is interoperability between
these government systems.
"These projects are already in place but there is lack of coordination.
These systems really have to interoperate," said Lilia Guillermo, deputy
commissioner for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Interoperability was discussed during a forum sponsored by Microsoft
Philippines and attended by government representatives, including
Guillermo, who also heads the CIO Forum, a group composed of CIOs and IT
managers in the public sector.
In particular, Guillermo noted an ongoing computerization project by the
Civil Service Commission to build a database of government workers
numbering more than 1.3 million individuals.
"This project, for example, would need to be interfaced with those by
the GSIS [Government Service Insurance System] and PhilHealth
[Philippine Health Insurance Corp.]," she said.
Guiilermo added: "Maybe the CICT [Commission on Information and
Communications Technology] could spearhead this next step. The important
thing is these projects already exist."
Tess Roberto, director for the National Computer Center (NCC),
meanwhile, noted that inter-agency rivalry can restrict
interoperability.
She cited as an example a previous project dubbed "FinLink" that would
have linked data between finance-related agencies such as the Social
Security System, GSIS and BIR. "But that project fizzled out. Some
agencies simply do not want to share databases," said Roberto. This is
also a reason that was cited as a hindrance to government plans of
creating a national ID system.
The NCC official stressed the importance of streamlining IT operations
in government. "Maybe the government cannot do it alone and should work
with the private sector on enforcing interoperability".
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080311-124073/Govt-execs-cite-need-for-IT-interoperability
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