COTABATO CITY – Ministry of Interior and Local Government’s venture in transforming Bangsamoro governance through digitalization gets boost with arrival of 559 new information communication technology (ICT) equipment from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
MILG Minister Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo personally received the equipment in a turnover ceremony virtually attended by UNDP Resident Representative Dr. Selva Ramachandran held Thursday, Feb. 18.
Of the 559 equipment, 122 are android tablet units (Samsung Galaxy Tab S6), 122 wireless keyboards, 15 units of laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad E14), and 300 units of pocket WiFi.
The devices, Sinarimbo said, were procured by the MILG thru the UNDP, for the use of field officers under their collaborative program dubbed ‘Localizing e-Government for Accelerated Provision of Services (LeAPS)’, launched in October 2020.
“Last year when the global pandemic started, production and supplies globally were disrupted and it became a major challenge to procure equipment from local suppliers, as the global production, shipment and movements were disrupted because of lockdowns imposed by different countries and even local government units,” Sinarimbo said.
“To surmount these challenges, we partnered with UNDP thru our Project LeAPS to allow us to utilize their global network and get access to these equipment at a standard price,” he added.
LeAPS program aims to transform local governance in the Bangsamoro region by significantly accelerating connectivity in communities and opening up governance through improved access to services and information, community enterprise development, assisted rural e-commerce, and skills development.
The program is also a way to overcome the reliance on archaic, paper-based, and manual processes within and among the local government units (LGUs) in the region.
The tablets and laptops will be distributed to Municipal Local Government Operations Officers (MLGOOs) across the region, while the pocket Wifis will be given to the LGUs in Lanao del Sur’s Butig and Pyagapo municipalities where the LeAPS was piloted.
In December 2020, said LGUs, along with some employees of MILG, have undergone training on designing service processes and prototypes of e-services in preparation for the digitalization of basic services this year. (Bangsamoro Information Office)
