The Department of Finance (DOF) under Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has beefed up its digitalization initiatives, which include facilitating trade online and making the filing of tax exemptions more convenient to better serve the public and improve its oversight functions and policy-making processes.
Dominguez said these modernization initiatives include the enhancement of the DOF’s Tax Exemption System (TES), which was replaced by the web-based TESlite to make it easier and more convenient for importers to apply for tax and duty exemptions with the Department’s Revenue Office.
“These digitalization initiatives include heightened security measures to make our systems safe from malware and possible cyber attacks,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said the DOF has also put in place the GOCCs (Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations) Liabilities and Monitoring System or GLaMS, which is an enhanced web-based system for the reporting and processing of data pertaining to the debts and liabilities of state-run firms.
The GLaMS covers national government (NG)-guaranteed, on-lending from NG, and non-NG guaranteed loans, as well as the loan status, and other forms of liabilities, contractual obligations, and other relevant information related to GOCC debts.
“It aims to streamline the GOCCs’ data reporting process through paperless and direct input from the GOCCs. This provides us a comprehensive set of debt data and other information about the liabilities of GOCCs to better assist the DOF in its debt analysis and formulation of financial strategies for these state-run corporations,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said that with the DOF’s active engagement in assisting Congress in crafting proposed reforms in the tax and financial systems, the Department has set up a Legislative Management Portal (LMP) to help its officials monitor the status of bills filed in the legislature.
The LMP contains data on the DOF’s proposed reforms that require congressional approval, as well as other bills that need the Department’s inputs; relevant documents; and schedules of committee hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives for easy reference.
The DOF’s Privatization and Management Office (PMO) has also modernized its processes by, among others, enhancing its existing Asset Register Information System (ARIS) to include the upcoming integration of additional information for legal cases tied to specific assets, and verification documents to check the accuracy of the asset details in the registry.
A data analytics reporting tool was also adopted by the PMO to extract the relevant data from the ARIS and present them in an easy-to-read executive dashboard.
The PMO also digitized its Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) Database; modified and updated its Document Tracking System (DTS) to easily track all of its incoming documents that were acted on with the corresponding outgoing documents; and utilized the latest version of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Electronic New Government Accounting System (eNGAS) and Electronic Budgeting System (eBudget) to improve its internal financial processes, to name a few.
Dominguez said the PMO has already received the endorsement of its 2022-2024 Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to support its computerization projects for the next three years.
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