The Philippine Tax Academy (PTA) will soon launch an online training platform that would enable employees of the Department of Finance (DOF) and its attached agencies to remotely access the institution’s course offerings via the Internet.
Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said this online tool will be dubbed iLEARN, which stands for innovative Learning Education and Resource Network.
It will be made available to employees of the DOF; Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR), of Customs (BOC) and of Local Government Finance (BLGF), including treasurers of local government units (LGUs).
“The iLEARN tool will utilize electronic technologies to deliver continuing education programs for employees of the Department and its attached agencies, completely online,” Beltran said in his report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during a recent DOF Executive Committee (Execom) meeting.
A PTA Induction Manual, meanwhile, was launched recently for the benefit of newly appointed LGU treasurers and new employees of the DOF and its attached agencies assigned in the regions.
Beltran said the Manual contains materials for a “blended learning course that combines both online and live orientation sessions for employees.”
As directed earlier by Dominguez, the PTA will be filming its lectures and uploading them online to make these available to personnel of the DOF and its attached agencies, especially those based in remote areas.
Under Republic Act 10143, the PTA “shall serve as a learning institution for tax collectors and administrators of the government and selected applicants from the private sector.”
This law provides that, “All existing officials and personnel of the BIR, the BOC and the BLGF shall be required to undergo the re-tooling and enhancement seminars and training programs to be conducted by the Philippine Tax Academy.”
It also requires “all applicants to the said bureaus” “to pass the basic courses before they can be hired whether on contractual or permanent status.”
Beltran said the DOF is planning to set up permanent PTA campuses in Tagaytay City in Cavite and in New Clark City at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga.
For the Tagaytay campus, the PTA will join other government-run professional learning institutions such as the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) International Training Center in a lot donated by the city government, Beltran said.
A plan to set up another PTA campus in the New Clark City, which is now being developed as the country’s first smart, disaster-resilient and sustainable metropolis, will likewise push through, he added.
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