Gov’t agencies adopt web hosting, email, info standards policies

Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) logo

MANILA – The Department of Science and Technology – Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) recently announced that government agencies would adopt policies it has issued with regard to operational standards, web hosting and email.

To make all government offices efficient, ICTO executive director Louis Napoleon Casambre signed the Memorandum Circulars governing Government Web Hosting (GWHS), Government-wide email (GovMail), and Philippine eGovernment Interoperability Framework (PeGIF Part 2), or the Information Interoperability (IIF).

These are all part of ICTO’s iGov Philippines program which aims to enhance government efficiency and effectiveness through using relevant mechanisms to implement interactive, interconnected and interoperable government applications.

He said the GWHS is the key to the need for greater security and robustness in internet technologies that the government uses.

Adopting GovMail services will rationalize communications and improve delivery of goods and services to the public, according to Dennis Villorente, ICTO deputy executive director.

The DOST said that the Memorandum Circular on GovMail is in line with the provision of Republic Act 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, which requires the government to redesign its transaction systems and procedures to lessen bureaucratic red tape and processing time.

Furthermore, this would provide the basis for appropriate actions on violations on the use of GovMail service.

Meanwhile, the Circular on interoperability lays out the policies on information standards to be adopted by government agencies.

Villorente noted that the IIF would enable the government to share and reuse information in a uniform and effective manner among its agencies as well as with the stakeholders.

Anyone interested to learn more about iGov Philippines as well as the DOST-ICTO, may visit the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City during the National Science and Technology Week on July 24-28.