Government eyes blockchain to secure public funds

The government intends to adopt blockchain technology in key budget processes by early next year as part of the safeguards aimed at preventing anomalies similar to the multibillion-peso flood control scam.

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Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda said the use of the technology aims to address corruption by ensuring that public funds have a permanent and tamper-proof digital record.

"Once the budget has been allocated officially, we'll start constructing the blockchain that will not cater just to the budget, but for the whole CADENA (citizen access and disclosure of expenditures for national accountability) execution,” Aguda said.

He was referring to the CADENA bill, a measure that aims to enable the public to track how state funds are spent by requiring the full disclosure of all public transaction documents through a secure and tamper-proof digital public ledger system. It is one of the priority bills of the Marcos administration.

"Perhaps by 2027, the pure blockchain will take effect from budget to disbursement to budget allocation et cetera, et cetera,” Aguda said.