DPWH, Blockchain Council partner to develop accessible digital ledger of foreign-assisted projects

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Tuesday inked an agreement with the Blockchain Council of the Philippines (BCP) to develop a blockchain-powered digital ledger initially for foreign-assisted infrastructure projects, which will be accessible to the public.

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and BCP president Donald Lim signed a memorandum of agreement to digitize data on national projects which would include budgets, procurement processes, and construction milestones to be put in a “blockchain ledger.”

As part of the pilot, BCP will be providing the DPWH with a one-year complimentary subscription to the “Integrity Chain,” which includes technical support, training, and cybersecurity measures in full compliance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

The Integrity Chain aims to transform infrastructure governance by offering a real-time public dashboard that tracks project spending and progress, enabling citizen feedback and anomaly reporting, and providing tamper-proof records to deter corruption, according to the DPWH.

In an interview with reporters, Dizon described the partnership with BCP as a “very important step” to monitor each step of the processes within the DPWH “from the central office down to the regional offices and down to district offices.”

The Public Works chief said that while the pilot for using blockchain technology would be initially for foreign-assisted projects, the DPWH’s partnership with the BCP will eventually expand to cover locally funded projects of the agency.

Lim, for his part, said BCP is targeting to make the Integrity Chain initiative live “within the next 60 days.”

In his remarks, Dizon said that “by placing our foreign-assisted projects—those funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA)—on the Integrity Chain, we welcome the scrutiny of the private sector, academe, and civil society.”

“This is DPWH’s strong response to the President’s directive to ensure transparency and accountability is enforced for its projects. On behalf of the President, on behalf of the entire cabinet, on behalf of the entire government, thank you for this because this is really where what we should all do. From the budget process to the procurement process, to the award of the contract, to the implementation of the project, to the monitoring of the project, to the payments made to the contractors, to the acceptance of the project. Everyone should be watching now, everyone,” the DPWH chief said.

Lim, likewise, said that “for the first time, the private sector is not just demanding integrity—we’re building the infrastructure to deliver it.”

In his statement of support, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda called on BCP, “Let’s rally behind technology, let’s rally behind doing a new way of governance in the country.”

Blockchain is defined as a digital database or ledger stores data or records across a network of computer which is transparent and immutable, meaning it cannot be tampered with. —VAL, GMA Integrated News