senseneres: USING SOFTWARE FOR MONITORING GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

USING SOFTWARE FOR MONITORING GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

The Philippine government already uses several project monitoring platforms—Project DIME, Bisto Proyekto, BuildTrust, and a mix of international project management software. And yet, despite these tools, massive corruption in flood control projects still occurred. This raises an uncomfortable question: If the systems were there, why did they fail?

Was the software installed but never used? Were users inadequately trained? Or worse, did corrupt insiders feed wrong or misleading data into the system—turning what should have been a safeguard into a mere façade?

Software is only as honest as the people who use it. That is the truth many don’t want to confront.

The Limitations of “Canned” Software

We often assume that any project management (PM) software—Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, Microsoft Project, Jira—can magically eliminate irregularities. But these tools, while excellent for tracking tasks and timelines, are not built to detect anomalies, illegal fund releases, or ghost accomplishments.

They will not flag that a contractor was paid without completing a milestone, or that a project site does not exist in reality. Only a system designed for fraud detection, equipped with AI, geotagging, satellite validation, and blockchain auditing, can do that.

This is why I fully agree with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s call for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in monitoring government infrastructure projects. But before AI can work, you need a solid foundation: robust, professional-grade software tailored to public-sector realities—not generic task trackers.

We Actually Have Good Tools—But Are They Being Used Right?

Let’s look at the government platforms that already exist:

🛰️ Project DIME (DBM)

Uses satellites, drones, and geotagging to validate infrastructure projects.
Tracks status, percentage completion, funding, and implementing agencies.

🧭 Bisto Proyekto

A citizen-reporting platform that lets communities verify projects through a map-based interface.

🔍 BuildTrust

Aggregates project data, allows citizens to upload evidence, and monitors contractor performance.

These tools strengthen transparency—in theory. But the failure of flood control monitoring suggests either (a) data was not updated, (b) there was no enforcement, or (c) the systems’ outputs were simply ignored.

That is the real issue: technology without political will becomes nothing more than decoration.

Where AI and Blockchain Must Come In

AI can analyze thousands of project entries and detect red flags:

identical progress reports across multiple regions
fund releases misaligned with physical accomplishments
geotagged photos reused by contractors
projects located in areas with no satellite-detected activity

Blockchain, meanwhile, can create an immutable ledger of transactions. Once funds move or milestones are logged, nobody can alter them without leaving a digital fingerprint.

But again, these innovations can only work after the government standardizes its project monitoring system. Right now, agencies use different platforms, different reporting styles, and different integrity standards. This fragmentation is exactly what corrupt actors exploit.

My Suggestion: One National PM Platform, Modular per LGU

Instead of 20 disconnected dashboards, we should have a single national project monitoring backbone that integrates:

PM tools (Microsoft Project or ClickUp for internal planning)
AI fraud detection
Blockchain auditing
Satellite/drone verification
Citizen-reporting tools like Bisto and BuildTrust

LGUs could have their own access layers, with barangay-level reporting built in.

This is not a technical dream—it is doable. Countries like Estonia, Singapore, and South Korea have already unified government monitoring platforms with AI assistance.