IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has announced plans for an academy to boost the skills of senior project leaders across government to deliver complex ICT and other projects.

Each year two groups of about 25 people will enter the Major Projects Leadership Academy for a 12 month formal programme covering three primary themes: major project leadership, technical understanding of major project delivery and commercial capability.

While the report, Better with less: delivering local public services in the digital age, does highlight a number of individual instances of good practice, it found that overall levels of implementation across the 30 authorities it spoke to were ‘patchy’ and that few authorities could demonstrate good practice across all their digital activities.

The academy will be delivered in partnership with the University of Oxford's Said Business School.

"This will reduce the over-reliance on expensive external consultancy further and build expertise within the Civil Service. In future no one will be able to lead a major government project without completing the academy," the government said in a statement.

Central government departments spent more than £500 million on consultants and short-term staff last year to help put flailing large projects, such as Universal Credit, back on track.

An investigation carried out by The Times found that when 'off payroll' staff were included, the figure was likely to be nearer £800 million.

Audit Scotland examined the information and communication technology (ICT) programmes, which were either delayed, cancelled or hit by rising costs. Auditor General for Scotland Caroline Gardner said their report revealed "significant weaknesses in how they were planned, managed and overseen".

The Kerala Government has launched an online system ‘Action’ to monitor the status of projects and to check the files online to complete the developmental projects in a time bound manner. The online system was inaugurated by Chief Minister, Shri Oommen Chandy at a function held at the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.

Action connects all the Department Secretaries and the Chief Secretary online. Sometimes, mega projects hit roadblocks due to small reasons. Action would keep top officials informed about obstacles in a mega project, as and when they occur. If there is any hindrance to large projects then higher level officials can be notified and Action has been devised to quickly find solutions in such situations.

Addressing students at IIMB’s 39th convocation, Ahluwalia, who is the chairperson of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research and International Economic Relations (ICRIER), said, “e-governance with back-end integration has contributed greatly to services like getting birth and death certificates, building sanctions, paying property taxes and utility bills. It needs to be implemented in other cities like how it is being done now in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Surat.

To ensure transparency and accountability, the Works Department of Odisha has launched a Project Monitoring System, e-Nirman.

An expert committee on HR Policy for e-Governance has recommended the establishment of appropriate organisational structures both at Centre and states for the e-Governance programme and project management.

The global body is said to lobby with Niti Aayog to recognise the role of project management professionals.

Global body--Project Management Institute (PMI) today said that it was lobbying with Niti Aayog to recognise the role of project management professionals in executing any government projects.

Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar, Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, started his presentation with the definition of success in e-government projects. He said that success in these projects meant continued use of a system for long periods; that the value of benefits was greater than the cost for the agency implementing the project; that the project outcome had matched the objectives set in the beginning; that the project had harnessed the full potential for delivering value to different stakeholders and if the project created a sustained change in behavior in society.

Stating that only 15 per cent of government projects have been successful, he attributed the same to improper project development. He was making a presentation on ‘Principles and learnings of e-Governance’ at a workshop on ‘Journalism and e-Governance, for the benefit of journalists.

The workshop was organised by Venkatesh K as part of his fellowship from the US-based Knight Foundation on behalf of International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) at the Dr Marri Chenna Reddy Human Resource Development Institute here today.

The first session at NASSCOM India Leadership Forum titled Catalysing IT Transformation: Key Priorities and Challenges was chaired by Rajendra Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Technologies. The speakers of this session were John Sufflock, CIO, UK Government and R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India.

The Oxford University researchers examined 1,471 information technology projects, in private and public sectors, comparing budgets and estimated performance benefits with actual costs and results.

Der deutsche Bundesrechnungshof hat schwere Mängel bei den IT-Großprojekten der Regierungen von Bund und Ländern ausgemacht. Immer wieder würden bei Projekten, mit denen Finanzämter oder die Polizei modernisiert werden sollen, die gleichen Fehler gemacht, berichtet das Nachrichtenmagazin Focus.

"It is estimated that approximately 35 per cent of e-government projects in developing countries are total failures, approximately 50 per cent are partial failures -- only some 15 per cent can be fully seen as successes", a senior World Bank official told a seminar on e-governance here today.