By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
March 26, 2010

A group of line agency CIOs on Thursday urged the administration to appoint a government CIO, who will oversee the deployment of inter-agency IT projects and push ICT industry agenda at the cabinet level.

The call to appoint a central public-sector CIO stemmed from the long-running inefficiency in IT implementations across government, with projects not having a clear strategic direction per agency, the CIO Forum (CIOF) chairperson explained.

“The framework for IT implementations in government is not clear,” said Maria Esperanza Espino, forum president and current CIO of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. “Similarly, there is no leadership who is capable enough to carry out that framework.”

The appointment of a government CIO will solidify the role of ICT as an economic tool for nation-building. “Now, ICT is seen as just a tool—not even a strategic one—to automate the process in government agencies,” remarked Daniel Pabellon, chairman, CIO Forum Foundation (CIOFF), an organization of past agency CIOs.

While automation of processes is good, Espino said IT should not be relegated only to such. “IT should be part of the management strategy, so somebody ‘up there’ needs to call the shots and set policies and standards,” she said.

The government has in recent years been setting aside an e-Government fund worth P4 billiion a year to finance technology implementations in government. The CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology) administers this fund, spreading it across the agencies.

The problem, however, is there is no central management that prioritizes projects across all agencies, despite a standing criteria with CICT for fund requests that puts “inter-agency projects” at the top of the list. This creates a waste of resources, according to Espino, because some projects are either redundant with other agencies or are too inefficient to last the long haul.

“That is why one of CIOF’s advocacies is to update the GISP (Government Information Systems Plan),” Espino said. “Right now, there is no timetable, no priority list, and no business case for projects in the GISP.”

The GISP is a menu of systems to be developed in government drafted in 1997, a clear 13-year disparity that no longer addresses current ICT woes in government.

This is one of the reasons why the CIOF and CIOFF both strongly advocated the establishment of a DICT (Department of ICT), which was eventually shelved when Senate closed its session in January. “We need to put some teeth in government IT,” Espino said. “DICT is a more mature version of the CICT, which has the power to make policy and regulate the entire ICT sector.”

Right now, the CICT, created pursuant to an executive order, acts merely as an overseer of other connected agencies relating to ICT. “It is not even clothed by legal authority,” Pabellon remarked, adding that this often is the cause for fund requests to be questioned during budget hearings in Congress.

With a DICT in place, an all-encompassing body will be able to traffic and promote integrated IT projects in government by drafting a common plan for the architecture in the public sector. “The chairman [of DICT], subsequently, can be the CIO,” Espino clarified.

As regards to the skills criteria for the government CIO, Espino said the candidate should at least have competent “technical and management skills.” “Management skills are needed so he can make a business case for IT in government, while technical skills will enable him to communicate the IT strategy,” she explained.

The appointment of a government CIO likewise hopes to address common pain points for IT implementations in government, such as the difficulty of procurement of IT solutions and equipment.

As of writing, IT procurement in the public sector is governed by RA 9184 otherwise known as the General Procurement Reform Act. Under the Act, procurement is divided into four categories: goods, services, consultancy and infrastructure.

According to Espino, the mere definition of terms within the act poses a problem for IT projects, because almost always, IT products and services “fall under everything or nothing of the categories.” “CIOs now have a problem in packaging their project proposals, and would sometimes end up not getting what they initially needed,” she shared.

One of CIOFF’s advocacies, Pabellon said, is to make the procurement process compatible with IT. “CICT commissioned a study before that revealed that failure in procurement as the top cause of failed IT projects in government,” he said.

Similarly, vendors are shying away from bidding for public contracts because the process takes too long and they invest too much to get very little in the end. “There really is a need to streamline the procurement process,” Pabellon added.

In the same vein, government should also look into outsourcing some of their processes, according to visiting IBM executive Kevin North, who remarked that he is “surprised” the government is so backward in terms of ICT. “Why would government want to do everything themselves?,” he lamented, adding that the government is using so much resource just to manage everyday operations, leaving little to no investment on new services for citizens.

“Outsourcing can free up some of the CAPEX funds for government, which can be diverted to public services,” North added. IBM is on a global crusade to make “smarter governments” that leverage IT in order to deliver more efficient services to citizens.

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