The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that there is obvious need for concerted actions by stakeholders in information management sphere to improve data management, enhance the quality, improve quality of decisions and ultimately yield outcomes beneficial to citizens.
The minister, in a speech delivered at this year’s Institute of Information Management’s Annual Lecture, held at the University of Lagos, said that every decision, policy or programme administered by the government used information.
Mohammed, who was represented by an assistant director at the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, Mr. Ralph Anyacho, expressed the view that effective information management formed the bedrock for achieving the present administration’s ‘change mantra’.
While extolling IIM-Africa’s perseverance in the pursuance of information management development, he admitted that the information that underpinned public administration must be adequate, complete, accessible and usable.
He added that a key aspect of information management was designed to bring about transparency, accountability, efficiency and good governance in e-Governance.
“Automation helps strengthen government’s drive towards effective governance and increased transparency for better management of resources, for growth and development. Government is leveraging broadband to provide online service portals where citizens can receive information and interact with public service administration.
“Broadband holds the potential to move government processes online, increasing the speed of service delivery, improve transparency and accountability, reduce arbitrariness, impropriety and promote cooperation across departments at different levels of government,” the minister said.
Earlier in a welcome speech, the President and Chairman of the council, Institute of Information Management, Dr. Oyedokun Oyewole, said that they had continued in their zeal to ensure that the information management profession was accorded the right respect and position in the society, through the various initiatives over the years.
This, Oyewole said, would also go a long way, “as information is a force required to power the economy and democracy.”
He said, “The Federal Government today is faced with massive amounts of data that they must process, harmonise and integrate in order to meet mission requirements and deliver relevant, consistent, and current information to other government entities and the constituents they serve.
“Accountable governance, the fight against corruption, and improved service delivery depend upon the availability of good quality information about decisions and actions. Poor quality data, information and records will lead to missed opportunities to maximise the full value of publicly funded projects and programmes.”
He said, “The recent drive by the present administration to fight corruption, promote transparency and good governance can only succeed if government has unhindered access to quality information. It is obvious from recent happenings in government that Nigeria as a nation has yet to have full control over the records and information being generated, used and transmitted by the government, as government struggles to manage their public records in accordance with international standards. Most often, basic records and information management controls are not in place.
“Without these controls, records are likely to be incomplete, difficult to locate and authenticated. Where they exist, they can be easily manipulated, deleted, fragmented or lost.
“Poorly kept records, resulting in inaccurate or incomplete data, can lead to misunderstanding and misuse of information; cover-up of fraud; skewed findings and statistics; misguided policy recommendations and misplaced funding, all with serious consequences for poverty reduction and economic development.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ozioma Ubabukoh
Quelle/Source: The Punch, 28.03.2016
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