Davao City, Philippines: In order to monitor implementation of projects in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 11 Office of Special Concerns (OSC) officers received training on Quantum GIS software, which will allow them to monitor projects on the ground using technology called geotagging.
Using a camera equipped with GPS, the OSC coordinators will go to their areas to take pictures of the place where the projects are supposed to be located and upload pictures into the Quantum GIS software.
“They will take pictures of existing roads, facilities, marketplaces and boundaries, using a camera with a GPS, and when they come back, they load the data into the computer,” GIS specialist Maribeth Casten said.
Darwin Rasul, assistant secretary at the ARMM’s OSC, said the system will make it easier to check whether the picture they took on the ground matched data in the group’s database.
“Once we discover something anomalous, then we report it to the governor,” Rasul said.
“The wisdom of geotagging is to make the validation more accurate, more effective and faster. This is part of the ARMM government’s reform program to make public servants accountable,” he said.
Recently, Rasul revealed that millions of public funds on projects were wasted.
Source: Inquirer
