Provincial board goes wireless
By Grace Cantal-Albasin
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:53:00 10/11/2008
WHILE THE SENATE AND the House of Representatives still use paper in their transactions, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Misamis Oriental has made a breakthrough in turning the entire legislative process into a virtual paperless and wireless system.
Vice Gov. Norris Babiera could not contain his excitement when he and the 14 board members launched their first paperless and wireless session on Monday. No stapled agenda sprawling on each desk, but a new, sleek computer notebook gleaming and waiting for the keys to be pounded.
The province is the second in the country to implement such setup. Agusan del Sur did it last year.
Although the majority of the board members are not computer literate, the project got all their nod in order to save time and resources, and to contribute in mitigating global warming by minimizing, if not totally eradicating, the use of paper in the office.
Current appropriation to purchase office supplies and to repair and maintain office equipment in the province this year was pegged at P782,500.
The purchase of computer equipment and the training of the board members and staff took only six months since the board’s IT team began research and exploration in March.
Instead of hiring experts on system application and IT innovations, the staff held in-house training without them, enabling them to save about P300,000. Oliver Egypto, IT unit head, said the system did not really require experts to implement it.
“When we visited the province of Agusan del Sur to observe its system, we thought it would be a complicated process. However, we were wrong. Any techie savvy can do it, so when we came back, we tried it and we found it was easy,” said Egypto.
The board directed two staff members who had trained on connectivity and IT to begin the rigorous research, exploration and application until the system was ready on Monday.
The budget was pegged at P1.5 million, but with prudence in crafting the budget, spending and maximizing people resources, the province reduced spending to about P1 million.
Babiera said that instead of buying a new vehicle worth P1.5 million for the board’s use, he proposed that the amount be used for the paperless and wireless system.
An ordinance will be filed to institutionalize the system.
“Politicians come and go. So, regardless of who the next kagawad or vice governor would be, the training of the SP staff will continue so that the system will remain in order that the pro-active legislation stays which is ultimately the aim of the legislative council,” Babiera said.
This is how it works:
The vice governor and the board secretary administer the server desktop, the brain of the entire system.
The legislative building is a Wi-Fi hot spot and three routers serve as linkages of the documents.
When a board member speaks during the session’s “privilege hour,” his agenda can be read by all, provided this had been submitted days before.
A scanner that can scan 20 documents in one minute is used. “The scanner works swiftly without noise. So, if a board member has a paper document for presentation, it can immediately be scanned and relayed to all the laptops of the other board members,” Egypto said.
Even members of the media can access the documents through e-mail or directly to their laptops once they are inside the building.
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