Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the Philippines is to spend PHP 4 billion (US$ 91 million) during the initial phase of the end-to-end digitisation of its financial management system.

The project, Philippine Government Financial Transaction Digitisation, aims at minimising corruption in the government. Chief Information Officer of DBM, Richard Moya, said, “The Philippine government has been leveraging technology and innovation as a key enabler of its good governance agenda. We are currently rolling out ICT systems to transform Philippine Public Financial Management (PFM), and the digitisation of government financial transactions is part of the PFM reforms of the administration.”

The initial phase is to be rolled out in three components - Government Human Resource Management Information System-National Payroll System (GHRIS-NPS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (GIFMIS) and Cashless Purchase Card (CPC).

DBM recently released a tender notice for the core GIFMIS component, which we wrote about here. The system is to provide transparency throughout the whole financial management cycle and is to be fully operational by 2016.

The GHRIS-NPS is a web-based software that will automate all human resource management functions of the central government. The NPS is a key application within the GHRIS-NPS system that is to assist the government in payroll processing by enabling standardisation, transparency, collaboration and centralisation. It is to be rolled out in phases from 2013 to 2015.

The third component, CPC, allows the government to record and collate data on transactions made on the Card, generating comprehensive customised reports that can be used for online accounting, reporting or auditing.

The Government is currently developing the PFM Competency Framework to support capacity development across all oversight and spending agencies. The Framework will define qualifications, knowledge and skills required for effective public financial management.