Low pay hinders digitalization
On Sept. 5 this year, President Marcos signed Republic Act No. 12254, or the E-Governance Act, requiring all agencies, including local government units (LGUs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations, to enhance their digitalization efforts in the provision of government services. The Department of Information Communications and Technology (DICT) is currently holding public consultations as it prepares the law’s implementing rules and regulations.
The law’s intent is very laudable. Aside from providing government services efficiently using technology, it also plugs the avenues for corruption inherent in transactions that still use physical documents that are easily fabricated and manipulated. However, a big problem that the government must address this early is the expected lack of manpower to fill the thousands of positions in all government agencies that will be needed to implement the digitalization push. This includes creating information and communication technology (ICT) departments and positions for chief information officers in each of the 1,724 LGUs.
The sad truth, which was highlighted at the annual CXO Tech Summit in Boracay on Oct. 14 to 17, is that IT professionals in the public sector face the same labor woes hounding the majority of government workers: low salary, lack of skills training and facilities, and the exodus to the private sector or abroad.
High turnover
Although the summit highlighted the need for both public and private enterprises to adopt new technologies in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and other key areas in digital transformation, government officials who spoke during the conference shared their problems on the lack of IT manpower.
Information and Technology Secretary Henry Aguda cited his own experience of losing staff in the DICT to private companies that offer better pay and promising career opportunities. “The problem also is the salary standardization [law] (Republic Act No. 11466). We want to provide cover and protection to our IT professionals because they are being poached,” Aguda told participants in the summit. He noted that this lack of IT staff will remain a problem as long as there is no law or policy ensuring job security and career growth in the government.
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary for ICT Johannes Paulus Acuña similarly expressed concern over the high turnover of IT workers at the Department of Social Welfare and Development, another agency shifting toward digitalization in its services.
Magna Carta
He said a big challenge is that most of their IT staff are hired as contractual workers and “there are no safeguards for us to retain talent.” Teresa Manabat, vice president for computer operations and support group of the Home Development Mutual Fund (popularly known as the Pag-Ibig Fund), also noted the high cost of technical training of ICT workers.
In 2022, then DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said there were only 200 cybersecurity professionals in the Philippines compared to Singapore’s 2,000 experts, adding that 80 percent of Filipino cyber experts work abroad. A primary reason is that the salary of cybersecurity experts in the private sector can reach about P200,000 a month, or four times the P50,000 that they get in the government sector. Industry experts and government officials pointed out during the Boracay gathering that the apparent lack of priority in enhancing IT talent in government will be a major factor pulling down the country’s efforts in digitalization.
One solution, according to Aguda, is for the passage of a Magna Carta for IT workers and Aguda hopes that lawmakers will make it a priority measure when Congress resumes session in November. “The IT sector should be recognized as a sector that is strategic in government. We have a Magna Carta for teachers, for doctors, so we should also have [one] for ICT professionals,” he pointed out.
Outdated salary scale
All three House bills seek the exemption of IT workers from the salary standardization law, as their salaries must be based instead on “industry benchmarks, specialized skill requirements, and market conditions.”
This problem is not peculiar to the ICT sector. The same goes for the country’s underpaid health workers and teachers. These are the people we often lose to other countries or private companies offering much higher pay. What the government needs to do is to overhaul its outdated salary scale to provide incomes enough to let public servants live decently. It is only then will laws such as the E-Governance Act succeed. Past administrations resisted altering this because of a lack of government funds. But come to think of it, if it can only shut the doors for malfeasance in public service, it will have enough money for the wage adjustments. The Office of the Ombudsman, citing World Bank estimates, noted that more than 20 percent, or about P130 billion, of the national budget is lost to corruption each year. The ongoing probe into anomalous infrastructure projects is showing it is more than this.
