PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has planned to transfer the administrative control of the Directorate of Information Technology from the science and technology department to the autonomous KP Information Technology Board.

The department has prepared the draft KP Establishment of Information Technology Board (Amendment) Act 2017 to ensure the smooth execution of the plan, say the officials concerned.

The officials said the DIT was established in 2004 to promote IT in the province and regulate e-governance initiatives. It has so far executed a total of 48 IT-related projects valuing Rs6 billion in the province.

On the other hand, the ITB was set up in 2011 with the objective of promoting IT and IT-enabled service and education for the private sector.

The official documents available with Dawn show that the decision on the shifting of the DIT’s control to the ITB was made during a board meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on May 14, 2015.

Minister insists move will streamline sector

Another meeting, which took place on Dec 16, 2016, decided that the representatives of the law, finance and establishment departments would meet to discuss the plan before a summary was moved to the chief minister for approval.

That meeting occurred on Jan 17 wherein it was decided that the plan would be executed through amendments to the KP Establishment of the Information Technology Board Act.

The draft of the proposed amendments was presented in a meeting of the departments concerned on March 31, wherein it came under thorough discussion.

The draft a copy of which is available with Dawn proposes the insertion of Section 9-A in the Act to decide the status of the DIT and its employees.

According to Section 9A, on the commencement of this act, the directorate of IT shall cease to be an attached department of science and technology and information technology (ST&IT) and shall be deemed under the control of the board, which shall take over the functional, administrative, financial and regulatory control over all activities, offices, projects, centers of the directorate for the disposal of its functions and that all movable, immovable assets and liabilities including furniture, fixture, machinery, vehicles of the directorate, shall be transferred to the board.

Also, the civil servants working with the directorate shall be given an option, either to continue to serve as civil servant or may opt for the employment of the board on the commencement of the act. The option shall be exercised within a period of 30 days after the commencement of the act and those employees who do not opt for their absorption in the board shall be absorbed in the directorate of science and technology, where they can continue to be governed and regulated in accordance with the Civil Servants Act 1973.

The officials familiar with the matter declared the move yet another ill-advised one on part of the government insisting ‘similar experimentation’ has played havoc with many public sector institutions.

“It seems they (government) have learned nothing from the fiascos of the restructuring of information department, establishment of Economic Zones Management and Development Company, Ehtesab Commission and restructuring of Tevta,” an official said, adding that the government was repeating the same mistake by placing the DIT under the control of the ITB.

“The government should not do this, especially when the end of its tenure is months away,” he said.

The official said the ITB’s mandate was to develop the private sector in the province but it had badly failed to do so. Instead of focusing on its mandate, it is taking over the DIT,” he said.

“The board was given Rs1 billion in 2011 but 90 percent of the funds is still in its bank accounts as it has failed to perform its job,” he said.

Science and technology and IT minister Shahram Khan Tarakai defended the proposed move saying IT sector was the future and therefore, the government was trying to streamline it.

He said the ITB could work in a proactive manner as its rules were flexible compared to the directorate.

“We are bringing both together for their better future,” he said, adding that a single entity can manage both private and public sectors as was seen in Punjab and other provinces.

The minister said duplication often created problems.

He said the ITB would be run in a corporate style under the IT minister.

“They recently hired a very competent team. They can successfully manage both the private as well as public sectors,” he said.

The minister said the government had worked out the plan’s details and would execute it after the enactment of the proposed amendments to the law.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2017