HYDERABAD, Sept 16: Pr-ojects worth billions of rupees for computerisation of different government departments have run into snags as the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) is least interested in posting computer literate officials in the ministry, sources in the ministry revealed on Sunday.

The sources said that a countless number of representations and summaries sent by Information Technology ministry on the transfers of officials and purchase of paraphernalia including vehicles were withheld by the S&GAD for inexplicable reasons, putting certain projects in doldrums.

About half a dozen projects including e-policing worth Rs950 million, automation of Advocate General (AG) of Sindh High Court (SHC) worth Rs55 million, Rs140 million project of Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), Rs27.5 million project of e-government Sukkur were projects, which the IT ministry had undertaken, the source said.

Out of Rs950 million for e-policing project Rs300 million were to be utilised in the current fiscal year but so far only Rs70 million had been released to the ministry, the source disclosed.

“We have to execute projects worth Rs4 billion for which we need technical staff and other paraphernalia,” an official, who wished not to be named, claimed.

The sources said that 38 jobs of different fields were to be created in 23 districts of the province bringing the total number of jobs to around 800 to 900 but they had not been created despite repeated requests.

Each district would have a separate executive district officer (EDO) for IT but their appointment was being delayed for unknown reasons.

Sources claimed that the outgoing secretary of IT, Mr. Tikkar Das was a technical official when the ministry was headed by incumbent City Nazim of Karachi Mustafa Kamal. Das went with Mustafa when he assumed responsibility Karachi city nazim, sources said.

“Around 200 officers are required in IT head office in Karachi but only 10 are working and you can well imagine the performance of our ministry with such a small number of officials,” said the source.

He said that the S&GAD was in fact talking IT very lightly and that might be the reason it was neither deputing officers nor posting new ones. The source referred to recent posting of additional secretary Iqbal Hassan Zaidi who had been posted in IT ministry by S&GAD without even taking the IT adviser onboard.

The source pointed out that the adviser to chief minister on IT, Noman Saigal, had distanced himself from Zaidi’s posting on grounds that he was neither consulted nor informed.

“Why should I own such an official whose posting is not being brought into my notice before issuance of his notification?” the source quoted the adviser as saying after he read news about the posting in an Urdu newspaper.

He maintained that the IT adviser was visibly upset as he believed that it was not the way the ministry was supposed to work in the province. “We don’t have sufficient number of vehicles for project directors to supervise the projects,” said the source.

He lamented that the IT, which received preference in every country of this computer literate world it was being meted out step-motherly treatment in Sindh.

“The adviser has been repeatedly requesting S&GAD to appoint the required number of staff in each district and in the IT’s head office but his requests have fallen on deaf ears as nobody is ready to listen to him,” the source claimed.