Five IT projects approved
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Saturday approved five projects to expand IT base and use information technology as a tool to ensure efficient delivery of public services in provincial governments.
A ministerial review meeting was held in this regard at the IT ministry which was presided over by Awais Leghari.
Four of the projects approved concerned with the province of Balochistan while one would be executed in the NWFP. However, the final approval to these projects would be granted by the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWF) meeting of the ministry to be chaired by IT Secretary Khalid Saeed.
During the ministerial review, the minister recommended setting up of two computer laboratories at the Staff Training Institute (STI) of the Establishment Department of the NWFP.
The meeting was told that the STI of the NWFP government was the only training institute in the province which provided training to in-service government employees in office procedures and management skills, particularly to the ministerial staff and low-level officers.
The STI was established in 1996-97 and since its establishment it has trained 4,549 public servants, including 806 officials.
Giving conceptual approval to the project, Awais Leghari emphasized that the backbone of a successful e-government programme was the cultural change which hinges in the development and training of government servants.
“The government servants should make full use of IT in their day-to-day activities,” he said, adding that for this reason it was imperative that the training academies include a component of IT so that government servants could be proficient in the use of computer and IT in their core functions.
The IT ministry had already set up computer labs and IT training programmes in 11 civil services academies as well as in the Staff College and National Defence College.
Separate projects for setting up similar facilities in the three national institutes of public administration are also expected to be completed this year.
Mr Leghari also approved in concept a project for strengthening the IT department of the Balochistan government. Under the project, the IT ministry would provide modern IT equipment to the department in carrying out its functions more efficiently. The department provides public service and plays a pivotal role in implementing projects at the grass-roots level and streamlining public services with the use of IT.
Mr Leghari recommended setting up of Balochistan e- government network to link up government offices in the Civil Secretariat. He also stressed the need for setting up a data centre for the provincial government so that maximum benefit could be derived from networking.
The data centre would provide a platform to deploy several applications for improving efficiency of the departments and enabling them to communicate through secure electronic mail and share information.
The setting up of this facility will allow government servants to share information, which currently takes days to be available instantaneously, and increase the efficiency of the departments manifold. This will result in better services to the citizens.
The minister also recommended a project to automate Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. The automation of the board will improve its functioning and facilitate better record keeping.
He also stressed that automation be done on the same lines as in other boards in the country so that students from Balochistan could also avail state-of-the-art facilities enjoyed by students in more developed cities.
The meeting also gave conceptual approval to set up a web portal of the government of Balochistan. The minister strongly supported the project and directed the staff in the federal information technology ministry to work closely with the Balochistan government in developing, what he called, a world class web portal.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/18/2004
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