Hi-Tech Transparency
US President Barack Obama is proving to be a leader with foresight. After putting his signature on the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he immediately launched his administration’s website www.recovery.gov. This is being touted as the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in its use of the $787 billion stimulus fund.
Americans saw the move as a big departure from the secretive style of the Bush Administration. Many of them acknowledged it as a step forward towards greater transparency. What’s left to be seen now for Americans is if that one step will be followed by another. For us Filipinos, however, it’s more about whether a forward step will be taken at all.
The Philippine government could certainly take such a step, a giant leap even, by simply following the Obama administration’s hi-tech lead. After all, it did tinker with the idea of putting up a national broadband network, which would have interconnected all our government institutions and offices. The only problem was that the project came with the hefty price tag of $329 million. And, of course, there was that, ahem, minor issue of corruption.
Clearly, a transparency website would be easier and so much cheaper to set up. Anyone care to provide a rough estimate and a list of technical requirements for this?
Take a look at Danny Arao’s post on Freedom of Information Act. I think that such legislation is a worthy cause to support but the bills that are currently being discussed are weak.
For one, none of them propose a measure similar to what was instituted after the Watergate Scandal in the US. I believe this law was called the Presidential Records Act and it says that all the US President’s communications should be recorded for security purposes. Through the US FIA, recordings of the US President’s conversations can be made public, especially when it involves some manner of crime or breach of the oath of office.
If we had such measures, my thinking is that the Hello Garci scandal would by now have terminated in the impeachment of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, since the recordings of her conversations with Garci would be part of the country’s public records.
I know there might be a flaw in my idea, but, perhaps it is a direction worth looking into.
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