24 April 2005	Sunday	14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 23: The information technology ministry on Saturday approved a project worth Rs39.458 million for IT- enablement of Civil Services Academy (CSA) in Lahore. Prepared by the Electronic Government Department (EGD) of the Ministry of Information Technology as part of the ongoing electronic governance programme, the project would be executed within two years.

“We are working aggressively to execute the e-governance programme in the government and this project would have a significant impact on the promotion of e-governance as a whole,” Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said.

Giving details about the initiative, he said his ministry had provided 11 civil services academies with necessary infrastructure to impart IT training to government officers of grade 15 and above.

“IT training of government officers of grade 20 and above is being imparted at the Pakistan Administrative Staff College (PASC) as well,” he said.

Mr Leghari said the main objective of this project was to train probationary officers to work in a paperless office environment. This will be done through extension of the IT infrastructure at both campuses of the Civil Services Academy (CSA), Lahore. Computer laboratories have already been established in both campuses (two labs at Walton and one at DMG campus) through another project funded by the IT ministry.

IT-enablement of the CSA and PASC would play a vital role in the development of IT-based skills in middle and top-level government officers, thus preparing them to use e-government applications in their offices, he said.

The minister also stated that IT-enabled training of government officers would be a key milestone in achieving the e-governance goals and would assist the government to move to the next level which was application of IT in core functions.

He elaborated that currently there was a lot of raw-isolated data available in government departments but it was difficult and time consuming to retrieve and then process this data into useful information to assist in the decision-making process.

“In future government officers will be able to make use of the automated office environment and use the information available for decision-making,” he said.

Such facilities would help in transforming data into useful information which would significantly reduce the time involved in decision-making thus increasing the overall efficiency and productivity of government departments.

Under the current project, IT facilities will be provided to hostels and library. A network environment will be created and both campuses will be connected through a wireless connection.

In addition to upgradation of IT infrastructure of the two campuses, the scope and quality of training at the CSA will also be enhanced with the help of IT tools.

The minister said once this project was completed the capacity of different government departments would be enhanced significantly.

“It is envisioned that once government officials realize the benefits of IT in terms of increase in office productivity and efficiency, through the training they receive at CSA in a paperless environment, they would play a proactive role in promotion of electronic governance culture within their own departments,” he said.

The project in turn would help in development and delivery of citizen centric services in a timely, efficient and transparent manner, he added.

The CSA is planning to improve the existing course outline, contents and methodology of subjects/courses ‘Computing skills and IT Management’ according to the latest development in the field of IT.

The plan is to engage an IT consultant from a reputable institution to design course outline and suggest teaching methodology which would help groom probationers in IT applications.