NOTE: THIS PRESS RELEASE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
The pandemic created a situation where we could all be creative. In order to continue the day-to-day transactions between the City Government and the 15 barangays, the Information Technology Unit of the City Government hooked up all the 15 barangays and wired them up.IT set up landline phones in each of the 15 barangays, on top of that, each barangay has an internet connection which they could use to easily connect to the outside world.
IT Head Mariano Tambis said the inter-connectivity would be useful to advance the development agenda of the barangays,” Communication plays a vital role in every aspect of development. The ease of access provided to the barangays is a major leap towards capacitating the barangay officials to chart its own plans and transactions,” Tambis said.
Aside from the inter-connectivity in the barangays, the City Government had made other steps towards limiting the face-to-face transactions, getting it online to ensure safety amidst the pandemic. The City Accounting Department launched the Tracking Assistant Gateway or TAG last year.
It is a software application that enables all the offices in the City Hall to track the progress of their claims. There is no need to go to the City Accounting Office and discuss the status of the claims since all the details are already posted in the system. The IT department who made the program installed TAG in all the offices in the City Hall. The system is assigned to a focal person who is responsible to manage the application. The TAG installed in a certain office cannot be accessed by other offices. It is exclusive and password-protected.
Jinky Tecson from the City Planning and Development Office said TAG is a big help, “The document monitoring and management system inquiry or Tracking Assistant Gateway of the accounting office helped our office a lot. It is now easy to track the status of our payroll and other accounting transactions.
When you check the system, you just need a keyword to search your transaction. The system will show where your paper is and who is the person working on it. You need not go or call the accounting office to know the status of your documents. It is also very timely, since this pandemic, we do not need to have face-to-face transactions. So, I was able to save time and be safe all at the same time”, Tecson said.
City Accountant Eleanor Beniga said that the tracking system greatly eased their burden during this pandemic, “I asked our receiving clerk regarding the number of inquiries on the transaction claims when the TAG system was installed. She told me that the face-to-face transactions decreased by 80%”, Beniga said.
The City General Services Offices also managed to adapt to the pandemic. Under the leadership of Dr. Chris John Rener Torralba, the GSO set up an e-Procurement System. This e-Procurement system is a 24/7 service that automates the preparation of the Purchase Request (PRs) for goods and it allows easy tracking of the progress of PRs.
All PRs will be filed and created online by the designated Supply Officer of the different departments and offices of the City Government of Tagbilaran. The offices through their Supply Officer can follow-up on the status of their PRs online. The PRs will then be reviewed, printed and processed by the CGSO. In the next phase of the system, it will be linked to asset management so that goods will be immediately tagged for inventory prior to release.
The e-Procurement system is lodged at the CGSO website www.gsotagbilaran.com. Supply Officers of the different departments and offices of the City Government can conveniently prepare their Purchase Requests (PRs) for goods online at their convenient time and place. The Offices through their Supply Officer can follow-up on the status of their PRs online. The system has proven to be most useful during the community quarantine since the Supply Officers can still remotely prepare and submit their PRs without physically submitting it. The department head and supply officer can receive a text message and e-mail alert regarding their PR.