The
pursuit to simplifying the processing
of civil applications was supplemented
by the city's proactive stance in
tapping the information technology.
As early as the year 2001, the Honorable
City Mayor Thadeo Z. Ouano has thought
of computerizing the property assessment
and tax administration, the business
permit and licensing operations,
the land tax clearance and the engineering
management information systems,
and the legislative information
systems. All these digital packages
were meant to enhance the operations
of the City Assessor's Office, the
City Treasury, the City Engineering,
and the City Administrator's Office,
and the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
The inter-connectivity brought about
by the computerization of the above-cited
offices has resulted to the establishment
of a VIRTUAL ONE STOP SHOP where
operations, from real property assessment
and tax assessment to land tax clearances
and finally to the generation of
the Business Permits are done digitally.
Through this innovative approach,
applicants for Business Permit do
not have to go from one office to
another or hop from one table to
another in a One Stop Shop but only
have to wait for their Business
Permits in their offices. This does
away the corruption-prone face to
face transactions between the applicants
and the Business Permit processors.
The digital connection also reduces
processing time to at most five
minutes.
Business Permits are delivered to
the establishments through the mails.
This enables the city to validate
the addresses given by the establishments
as well as enable the city to generate
a database and profile on the city's
economic enterprises.
The system was initially implemented
last January 2003. This will be
fully implemented this coming January,
2004, meaning reduction of the processing
steps, submission of the required
documents at one office and let
the computers do the walking. The
process ends with the printing of
either the Conditional Business
Permit or the Business Permit itself,
depending on the compliance of the
required documents .
In order to bring the business permit
delivery systems more accessible
to the barangays, the city started
a method by which all the barangays
can be connected to each other and
to city hall. This was carried out
through the Barangay.Net Project.
A year ago, in August 2002, the
Honorable City Mayor signed a Memorandum
of Agreement with the Barangay.Net
Cebu Alliance to bring about connectivity
in all of the 27 barangays of the
city.
The Barangay.Net Project puts the
citizens on line, not in line.
The Barangay.Net Project seeks to:
- develop
and implement a flexible, local
approach to community development
using Information and Technology
(ICT) to promote connectivity,
access, capacity-building and
content creation
- establish
barangay telecenters in Mandaue
City to allow citizens in the
area to have access to ICT and
related services
- develop
a Web portal for the city and
its barangays to facilitate local
and foreign trade and investment
in the local communities
- develop
and set up useful information
application systems in the barangays
to improve the delivery of basic
services and stimulate community
livelihood
- establish
a cost-effective network to facilitate
information sharing among the
barangays and the city government
The
Barangay.Net Project will:
- enable
the city to attain seamless communication
between barangays and the city
government
- promote
investment
- promote
faster and better delivery of
public goods and services
- bring
about proactive participation
of citizens in governance
- remove
functional barriers between government
and the citizens resulting to
increase customer satisfaction
particularly among taxpayers>
Salient
features of the Barangay.Net Project:
- online
access to Real Property Tax and
Business Registration Systems
- the
public can inquire and transact
business with city hall through
any of the 27 barangays in the
city
- all
computers connected in City Hall
Local Area Network (LAN) will
have access to broadband internet
- Video-conferencing
facilities
