(This nomination paper was submitted in 2017 to eGov Awards, a national awarding body.)
The
automated real property taxation program of Zamboanga del Sur is a relational
database solution that enables all the assessor and treasurer offices of the
local governments of Zamboanga del Sur to perform efficiently and effectively
its mandate on real property tax generation. The program records real
properties, monitors them, retrieves information, and assesses the tax dues of
real properties. From the treasurer’s end, the program records real property
tax payments, issues official receipts accordingly, reports tax collection, and
reports tax delinquents. These activities are done by linking all municipal
assessor and treasurer offices in Zamboanga Del Sur, to the provincial
treasurer and assessor offices thru electronic data sharing.
Background
of the Initiative
This initiative started when Provincial Governor
Antonio Cerilles assigned a technical working group to conceptualize the
computerization program in the middle of 2011.
Having done the concept, the
project management committee led by the provincial assessor conducted
consultations in “selling the idea” to the owners or end users of the
computerized real property taxation program particularly in the assessor’s
and treasurer’s offices. The committee held consultations with them
explaining the need and benefits of the computerization program. The
committee stressed that the computerization would remove the cloud of doubt
in the said offices and would make their personnel efficient and
unquestionably honest public servants.
For the beneficiaries, selling the
idea of computerization was not a problem because of its apparent benefits.
Automating real property assessment would inevitably result in bigger
revenues and eradication of red tape. Because of these social benefits, Governor
Cerilles and the municipal mayors have been in unison in pushing the use of
database solutions in the assessor and treasurer offices.
The
database program was used to be called the ITax. However, due to the availability
problem of Negros-based programmers who could troubleshoot the ITax, the
local programmers re-developed the program. In late 2013, Governor Cerilles assigned a local IT team composed of
regular employees of the provincial government to develop a similar database
program, which was subsequently called the Electronic Real Property Tax
System (eRPTax). The local IT team was
also tasked to address the problem of troubleshooting the database program. Field-tested
since early 2016, the eRPTax was fully deployed province-wide by June 2017.
Overall,
the automated real property taxation program makes the government personnel
using it efficient and effective in work. It eradicates red tape, promotes
transparency and accountability, and increases local revenue generation
benefitting everybody in the province since better revenues mean more
resources to implement public service programs.
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Benefits of the eRPTax
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The computerized transaction
program benefitted a lot the personnel involved, the clients served, and the
community as a whole. For the staff, the program has transformed their work
to a lot better. In the assessor's office, they can now finish around 20
transactions a day, which is a far cry to their usual work before of only up
to six transactions a day. Completing a transaction can be done in a few
minutes, unlike before when they usually finished a transaction in 2-3 weeks.
They now work fast and efficient. In the treasurer's office, on the other
hand, every collector has to remit late in the afternoon what they have
collected during the day. The treasurer also has to deposit in the bank what
has been remitted by the collectors. The program can easily account every
collection. Since the assessor's office and the treasurer's office are
electronically linked, the former can easily monitor all the recorded
collections. With this transparency, there is a check and balance.
With inefficiency and red tape gone
in the assessor's office while transparency and check and balance in place in
the treasurer's office, the clients of the local governments in the province
are satisfied. Gone are the days of cases wherein a client flared up because
his property papers were not moving at the assessor's office or his property
tax payments were lost and not credited to his account at the treasurer's
office. Meanwhile, the provincial assessor's office before could only
accommodate 10 to 20 clients a day, but with the computerization program it
can already accommodate up to 200 clients a day. The situation is less
stressful now in the said offices wherein the personnel now knows that they
are doing a great job, and the clients do not anymore flare up out of
dissatisfaction with public service.
Most of all, eRPTax has benefitted
the people in general in Zamboanga Sur, as the program has resulted in
increasing the real property tax revenues yearly since its adoption. The
increase is unprecedented, and it can only be due to the changes created by
the program. The following table shows the substantial growth of real
property tax revenues of the provincial government since it has adopted the
automated real property taxation program since 2010.
The increasing revenues have
resulted in better public service. Out of the taxes, the provincial
government was able to develop the government complex in barangay Dao ,
modernize the Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center, and establish the Provincial
Sports Academy and Provincial Agriculture College. It also reinvigorated the
sports program and boosted the organic agriculture program. With sufficient
revenues, the provincial government can do a lot more for the benefit of the
people.
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Sustainability
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The program is being sustained
from the local resources of the provincial government and the corresponding
municipal governments. Their workforces are maintaining the program, and the
cost of the hardware comes from their regular budget. The program has no
additional cost apart from the budget already allocated for the personnel
services, capital outlay, and operating expenses of every local government.
The supporting legislation is also in place already.
Meanwhile, since the database
program is already adopted as a vital part of the local tax collection system
that functions efficiently and effectively, there is no other way for any
local government in Zamboanga del Sur, whoever may be in power, to sustain
the program. Not continuing the eRPTax would mean wasting the system that
eradicates red tape, promotes transparency and accountability, raises local
revenues, and benefits a lot the whole community. Not sustaining it would be a
disservice to the public and might cost the career of any politician.
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Replicability
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Replicating the program is
feasible for any local government in the country. It does not cost so much
for any local government to do it. Those who want to replicate need only a
team of programmers to develop the relational database for the taxation and
monitoring system by using visual basic, MySQL, Firebird, PHP, and other web
applications. They have to make the program user-friendly to facilitate the adoption
of the end-users through consultations. The hardware cost is not also so
much, and the usual budget of the LGUs for the computers and other
peripherals is enough. It only needs ordinary hardware to make it work.
However, the chief executives must
be ready to exercise their political will. Expectedly, some people in the
assessor's and treasurer's office would resist adopting the program,
especially those who are benefitting from the manual method, including those
who benefit out of corrupt practices. From the start, the chief executives
have to commit themselves to implement the project for the sake of better
public service.
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