"The bureaucracy's desire to sit on the public information to perpetuate its power and authority is a major stumbling block in the implementation of e-government programme," he said addressing the launching ceremony of a new web portal of the Government of Pakistan www.pakistan.gov.pk. The Electronic Government Directorate organised the function. Leghari said his ministry had diligently pursued the e-government programme and launched various initiatives and projects in recent months but some of them failed to pick up because they undercut the power and authority of the bureaucracy.
He said the Ministry of Information Technology introduced the 'E-office Project' six months ago. The project involved electronic file movement and provided for a complete electronic format for all sorts of government procedures and processes but the auditor general and the finance ministry refused to recognise the electronic financial transactions and the project was yet to take off in earnest. He said other ministries and government departments were also reluctant to pursue this project because it had the potential to expose "inefficiency and lethargy which characterised the working many of these departments".
He said his ministry also prepared 'E-justice project' based on an electronic format developed by an East Karachi district judge to speed up the delivery of justice and dispose of backlog.
He said the project promised a lot given a massive backlog of cases pending with the lower courts and his ministry prepared a complete framework for a countrywide implementation of the project after seeking written consent of the high court chief justices to its ownership.
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 an easy and cheap justice to the people, it was rejected by the registrars and other officials of country's high courts which refused to take up its ownership," he said.
Leghari felt that e-government project could have a successful roll-out only if someone at the top level wielded a stick and followed a stick and carrot policy by offering rewards and incentives in case of an early implementation of the project. He said media and the people could also exercise their clout to force the government and state institutions to ensure transparency and accountability within their ranks. The minister told the audience his ministry had followed a composite strategy in the last five years to provide infrastructure across the country to enhance connectivity and then use this infrastructure to provide IT solutions and systems to deliver quick public services to the masses.
He said the financial and banking sector of the country was a good example of effectiveness of these IT solutions and systems which had made life easy for the bank customers, enhancing efficiency and accountability and reducing costs and length of time required for day-to-day transactions.
He said the country's banking system was also gearing up for the implementation of mobile phone banking within the next six months, which would make Pakistan one among a few countries having introduced mobile phone banking.
Quelle/Source: Daily Times, 14.09.2007
