Iloilo finalist in eGov ICT Award

• Source: http://panaynewsphilippines.com/2015/11/06/iloilo-finalist-in-egov-ict-award/
• Friday, November 6, 2015

By Jezza A. Nepomoceno (Capitol News/PN)

ILOILO – The system this province developed to improve its real property tax assessment has made it a finalist in the 2015 Awards for Excellence in Information and Communications Technology for Good Governance (eGov Awards).

Known as Iloilo’s Enhanced Assessment System with Tax Mapping System (Assys2v2), the entry was shortlisted in the Best Customer Empowerment category during the annual search held in Legaspi City, Albay recently.

The search was organized by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and National ICT Confederation of the Philippines to highlight the best practices in the use of ICT to deliver government services effectively and efficiently.

According to Salvacion Sibonga, chief of the Information Communication Technology Management Office, Assys2v2 was an innovation currently used by the Provincial Assessor’s Office in dealing with taxpayers, processing assessment transactions and establishing database record.

The software program was an enhancement of the of the province-wide Real Property Tax Assessment and Collection System (RPTACS) developed in 1998 to computerize real property tax collection in 42 towns here.

RPTACS materialized using a grant from the International Bank Reconstruction and Development – World Bank, Bureau of Local Government-Department of Finance and Canadian International Development Agency.

Sibonga said ICTMO was motivated to develop Assys2v2 due to the apparent growth in the assessment and revenue generation from RPT brought about by changes in assessed values of properties resulting from new ownership, new construction or appraisal.

Assys2 was created on June 2013 and was fully replicated in 42 towns following the nine-month training of all the personnel involved on system installation and network and hardware configuration since September 2013.

The tax mapping component was incorporated in Assys2 on August 2014 and 21 towns were using the software program to produce or generate reports required by the stakeholders in consonance with the requirements of the new manual on real property appraisal and assessment operations issued by the Department of Finance.

Municipal Assessor’s Office using Assys2v2 could charge certain amounts based on their local revenue code from taxpayers who wished to avail themselves such services, thus additional revenues for the local government.

The innovation in the system helped increase the province’s RPT revenues by 128 percent from P286,192,138.75 taxes in 2012 to P366,467,516.37 taxes in 2013.

Delayed submission of reports was also resolved and anomalous transactions could be easily tracked since reports could be generated reflecting the transactions made on a specific date and who handled it.