UK report blasts Customs' e-programme: The UK's Customs & Excise department has been slammed by a report accusing it of spending millions on its e-government programme with no clear idea of its benefits. The report by the Public Accounts Committee notes that "it is unsatisfactory that Customs has so far spent over STG100 million on its e-programme without a rigorous business case." Under the administration's e-government programme, Customs is obliged to offer 100 percent of its services electronically by 2005, and it is supposed to achieve 50 percent take-up of e-services by March 2006. The parliamentary report says that businesses have shunned Customs' e-VAT service because it offers no tangible benefit over traditional VAT services. It advised Customs to complete a full business case, specifying the benefits of the e-programme, and to formulate plans and expected dates to realise those benefits. The report also said that Customs had not followed good practice in managing the initial stages of the e-programme, demonstrating poor control over the commissioning and management of consultancy contracts, among other things. The report also noted that Customs' Private Finance Initiative contract with Fujitsu had risen from STG500 million to STG929 million "while many of the expected benefits remain to be demonstrated."
Munich moves to open source: The city of Munich in Germany is planning to migrate all of its computers from proprietary software to the Linux operating system and other open source applications. The local council voted last year to move its 14,000 desktop and laptop computers from Microsoft software to open source alternatives after a study was released that favoured the migration. SuSE Linux, a division of Novell, and IBM worked with the local government on a test phase for the so-called LiMux project, and the two companies hope to supply and maintain the open source software for the city. The Munich city government will start seeking bids for technology and consulting services in July, and the core migration work is due to begin in October, according to a city administration spokesman. The migration will be phased in, beginning with office desktop applications and then moving to operating systems and more specialised applications. The migration project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, and it is thought that it will cost around EUR35 million.
Victoria fingerprinting goes digital: The state of Victoria in Australia is rolling out a high-tech method of recording the fingerprints of crime suspects. Launching the Livescan digital fingerprinting system at 28 police stations across Victoria, Police and Emergency Services Minister Andre Haermeyer said the system would significantly improve the speed and accuracy of fingerprint collection. Haermeyer said the AUD75,000 Livescan units, supplied by Sagem Australasia, use optical light to digitally scan and capture finger and palm prints in six minutes. The prints can then be electronically submitted to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System and the Victoria Police Fingerprint Branch and cross-referenced against existing prints on the system, a process that takes about 20 minutes. "Before Livescan, officers were required to take fingerprints in ink and mail them to the Fingerprint Branch," said the minister. "The turn-around time was at least a week." Haermeyer also noted that the new system would produce better quality prints than existing fingerprinting methods.
Macau to develop e-government portal: The Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China will begin rolling out e-government in earnest in July, according to an official announcement. Chinese news service Xinhuanet reported that Secretary for Administration and Justice Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan said the project would include the establishment of an e-government portal. Forty-four government departments are being encouraged to cooperate with the e-government project, which will be a priority for the SAR government over the next two years, said Chan. A USD825,000 contract to design and develop a government portal was awarded last year to a team of network solutions providers from the International Institute for Software Technology of the United Nations University, the University of Macau and the Macau Institute of Computer and System Engineering. The portal will initially be accessible to the government's 8,000 civil servants but will eventually be made available to the public. The government has guaranteed further funding for the project.
Background checks go on-line for Arkansas employers: Employers in the US state of Arkansas can now perform criminal background checks for their employees on-line. The recently launched service, which is accessible from the state's official Web site www.Arkansas.gov, allows employers and professional licensing boards to access state criminal records through a secure search of the Arkansas State police database. Until now, employers who wanted to run background checks had to complete a notarised application form submitted via the postal service. The off-line process could take up to three weeks to complete, whereas the new e-service offers immediate results. The on-line service costs USD22 per search, or USD20 for employers who are obliged under Arkansas law to carry out background checks. Employers can opt to be billed monthly and can pay with a credit card or via electronic funds transfer through Arkansas.gov's secure payment server. Since its launch in May, over 2,000 background checks have been performed using the on-line service.
Autor: Sylvia Leatham
Quelle: Electric News Net, 30.06.2004
