Gov’t launches eGov Awards in info-tech, BPO confab

The launching of the first eGov Awards will be held in time for the opening of this year’s Information Communication Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (ICT-BPO) conference in Cebu on June 26.

The awards will determine which local government units (LGUs) throughout the country managed to maximize the use of technology to expedite the processing of transactions and services to the public.

The program will be spearheaded by the Department of Interior and Local Government in partnership with the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines.

This year’s conference chairman Jun Sa-a said Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo and NICP president lawyer Jocelle Batapa-Sigue will head the launching of the eGov Awards during the conference.

“The eGov Awards aims to recognize the initiatives by the local government units in line with improvements in their processes through technology,” said Sa-a.

He said the national government is streamlining their processes in all their offices including attached agencies and LGUs in line with the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) for 2011-2016.

After the official launch in Cebu, Sa-a said they will start accepting nominations from all over the country, which will be evaluated by a committee composed of officers from DILG and NICP.

There will be two categories for the eGov Award, which includes Best in eGov Customer Empowerment or G2C Award and Best in eGov Business Empowerment or G2B Awards.

“The awarding will be held in November during the NICP Summit in Laguna,” said Sa-a. He said Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City can be nominated as each used ICT tools to improve some of their processes.

The nomination can be done by any organization and should indicate specific processes and projects in each LGUs that had improved through use of technology.

Aside from the eGov Awards, the ASEAN ICT Award will also be launched on the second day of the conference.

“The ASEAN ICT Award also aims to recognize technology-based innovations in the ASEAN region. Monchito Ibrahim from the ASEAN ICT office will give the details of the award,” said Sa-a.

The 2012 Cebu ICT/BPO Conference will be held on June 26 to 27 at the Radisson Blu Hotel as one of the highlights of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual Cebu Business Month celebration.