DPWH turns to geo-tagging to weed out ghost projects

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is turning to a new monitoring system which includes built-in geo-tagging for government projects, a move that is supposed to weed out ghost projects.

In a statement on Wednesday, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar said the use of the new monitoring system nationwide is in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's mandate to increase transparency and eliminate corruption in the bureaucracy.

“We have rolled out the use of the Project and Contract Management Procedures and Application (PCMA). The new feature would enable the adding of geographic identification data to photos, videos, and other posts which allows other content from the same geographic location to be found,” Villar said.

“By 2017, with the full implementation of the PCMA, we expect to detect any ghost project real-time as they are posted in the system,” he noted.

According to the DPWH, the new system would also serve as an inspection tool to reflect the accomplishments of the department's projects real-time.

“The right to information does not end in the provision of data. There is a need to ensure that the public has access to quality information,” Villar said.

“The use of geo-tagging will provide a more accurate measurement of project accomplishments and at the same time determine whether certain infrastructures have been duplicated or if there are any instances of infrastructure overlap in the country,” the Cabinet official noted. — Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News