MANILA, Philippines – No more messy paperwork when you renew your National Bureau of Investigation clearance form, thanks to the Automated Clearance Machine (ACM).
To accommodate the growing number of people renewing their NBI clearance, the bureau and Mega Data Corp., the company that provided the machine and its software, Wednesday launched the NBI Automated Clearance Machine that functions like an ATM (automated teller machine).
The NBI form is a vital requirement for passport processing or for job applications, both local and abroad.
To use the ACM, an applicant must already have a clearance renewal card, which is much like an ATM card.
The new technology would eventually do away with the manual processing of clearances, according to Jose Avedillo, Mega Data chief marketing officer.
“The clearance renewal card is needed to operate automated clearance machines, designed to issue paper-based clearances and accept payments, almost similar to using an ATM machine,” he explained, adding that the system likewise aims to reduce the long lines at the NBI clearance center in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
The ACM, which accepts bills and coins as payment, features a biometrics system that uses a face-recognition software and fingerprint scanner to determine the user’s identity.
The ACMs will be installed in several bureau and other government offices, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as malls nationwide.
1 comment:
This is GREAT news indeed! And if it can be made to work the HONEST way it has been intended to, then it will be a tremendous gift to our long-suffering country. Perhaps the system could be process adapted and installed at the SSS and GSIS premises too. What a relief that would provide the huge mass of humanity that daily jampack the corridors of government offices.
You will have to pardon my cynicism, though.
The mutant moral and ethical pesthole so deeply entrenched in the psyche of many in the public service will not be so easily eradicated. It's no brainer to wonder what the catch here is/was/will be. Whose pockets will the "funds" be siphoned into? Who are the undisclosed financial beneficiaries of this otherwise fantastic system?
Let us hope that for the sake of the country, people with unassailable integrity will manage this system. Let us hope that this is not another goose that lays the golden egg for the select few.
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