September 15, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 2, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: Bureaucratic hurdles raised by the government and state institutions themselves have slowed the implementation of the e-government programme, and other IT projects initiated by the information Technology ministry, to a snail’s pace.

This was stated by the minister of information technology, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, who criticised the bureaucracy, calling it “sluggish” and a major stumbling block in implementation of the e-government programme.

He was speaking at a function organised by the Electronic Government Directorate for the launch of a new web portal of the government.

The minister said his ministry had diligently pursued the e- government programme and various initiatives and projects were launched recently but some of them failed to pick up because they weakened the power and authority of the bureaucracy.

Mr Leghari said the ‘e-office project’ was introduced by the IT ministry six months ago. The project involved electronic file movement and provided for a complete electronic format for all sorts of government procedures and processes. However, the auditor general and the finance ministry refused to recognize electronic financial transactions delaying the project.

He said other ministries and government departments were also reluctant to pursue the project because it had the potential to expose “inefficiency and lethargy which characterized the working of many of these departments.”

His ministry also prepared an ‘e-justice project,’ based on an electronic format developed by a Karachi district judge to speed up the delivery of justice and dispose of backlog of cases, Mr Leghari said.

According to the minister, the project was promising, given a massive backlog of cases pending at lower courts and a complete framework for a countrywide implementation of the project after consent of the high court chief justices.

He said a final meeting to review and streamline the implementation of the project was called by the prime minister a couple of months ago. “But despite the project being capable of delivering easy and cheap justice to the people, was rejected by the registrars and other officials of country’s high courts, which refused to take up its ownership,” he said.

Mr Leghari felt that e-government project could have a successful roll-out only if someone at the top level followed a policy of offering rewards and incentives in case of an early implementation of the project. He said media and the people could also force the government and state institutions to ensure transparency and accountability.

The minister told the audience his ministry had followed a composite strategy within the last five years to provide infrastructure across the country to enhance connectivity and then use it to provide IT solutions and systems to deliver quick public services to the masses.

He was of the view that the financial and banking sector of the country was an example of effectiveness of IT solutions and systems and reducing costs and transaction time.

He said within the next six months Pakistan would be among the countries with mobile phone banking.