ISLAMABAD, July 5: The federal cabinet has directed all the ministries and divisions to establish senior level focal points to ensure implementation of E-Government plan immediately and has made mandatory training in IT for all government employees of grade five and above. The federal cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last week issued these directives following a presentation on the introduction of E-Government. The cabinet also approved a five-year implementation plan for this purpose.

According to minutes of the meeting available with Dawn, the cabinet decided that all the ministries and divisions shall accord top priority to the introduction of E-Government Strategy and 5-Year Plan and employ a tracking mechanism to ensure that the decisions and the action items were implemented within specified timeframe.

The persons and organization and their tasks responsible for such implementation should be identified clearly to ensure effective control of action items, the cabinet decided.

The cabinet also directed the federal minister, minister of state and secretary IT and Telecom Division to allocate among themselves various ministries and divisions and undertake periodical review meetings with them to ensure the implementation of the decisions taken from time to time within specified time frame.

Under the decision each ministry and division shall establish a focal point, at least, of the level of joint secretary with a nucleus staff of 3-4 members from within existing sanctioned strength of that ministry or division who would be responsible for implementation of E-Government strategy within these respective ministries in coordination with IT and Telecom Division. For this purpose, no new posts shall be created.

The ministry of Information Technology would, in consultation with other ministries and divisions, evolve a concrete plan for basic IT training which shall be made mandatory for all federal government employees of grade-5 and above. This shall, inter alia, include motivation of staff by granting cash awards and promotions in order to generate their awareness and interest.

The ministry of IT and telecom would ensure that common applications shall not be rolled out to ministries and divisions without first stabilising the modules and ensuring that they were bug free and user friendly.

All the ministries and divisions have also been directed to immediately include introduction and adoption of E-government strategy in their goals and targets for review by the prime minister’s secretariat.

All ministers and divisions would ensure that the contents of their websites are current, complete and comprehensive.

Earlier, the cabinet was given a presentation on the introduction of E-Government i.e. their strategy and five-year plan within ministries and divisions by the E-Government Directorate of IT and Telecom Division.

The presentation included goals of E-Government, global experience, key success factors, current status of provision of basic infrastructure in ministries and divisions, E-Government strategy and the status of implementation of key National E- Government Commission decisions.

It was pointed out that the main objective of this project was to improve efficiency and effectiveness within the government, increase transparency and accountability in decision making and enhance delivery of public services to citizens in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Top level sponsorship, concerted effort of all the ministries, ownership and will to change, capacity to develop and absorb E-Government solutions, coherent policy and strategic framework for E-Government projects across the country, timely availability of funds, strong relationship between public and private sector and enabling amendments in laws, rules and procedures were indicated as some of the main key success factors based on international experience for implementation of E- Government Strategy.

The cabinet was also informed that the provision of basic infrastructure i.e. networking, provision of computers, etc. had been started in most of the ministries and division and will be completed shortly.