In a keynote address, Mr Iddrisu noted that the infrastructure would help reduce corruption, promote transparency and efficiency in the delivery of government services to the public as well as help government departments and agencies reduce cost, improve the security of their databases and make it easier for government channel partners to plug into government databases for the delivery of services.
He called on the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to ensure an uninterrupted service to the public.
The MDAs involved include the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Passports Office, NITA, National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Minerals Commission.
The others are the Births and Deaths Registry, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Food and Drugs Board (FDB), National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA).
In a welcome address, the Director-General of NITA, Mr William Tevie, noted that the pilot project was just a stepping stone for further expansion that would see the creation of one hundred more portals during the second phase of the project to ensure that all MDAs that required e-services to serve the citizenry were on the e-service platform by 2015.
Mr Tevie said a paradigm shift was necessary in the way citizens and institutions did business with government and that extensive public education and sensitization would be required for the success of the e-Services programme.
He disclosed that under the second phase of the project, the current network would be expanded with the addition of 30 new wireless internet base stations to improve the penetration of the government network infrastructure.
He said under this phase of the project, police stations, hospitals and schools would be added to the connected MDAs on the e-government network, adding that a secondary data centre would be built in Kumasi to make to make the government network more resilient.
Mr Tevie disclosed that to secure the government network and ensure that cyber incidences were reported promptly and efficiently, NITA had established a Computer Emergency Response Team (NITACERT) to co-ordinate security incidences on the government network and assist MADs resolve these incidences as they occurred, adding that the initiative would help MDAs create a culture of cyber security and reduce the risk of such incidences.
He said NITA had also initiated the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) whereby an open data portal would be created for government data on public expenditure, procurement and telecommunication quality of service would be effectively and efficiently managed to develop user-friendly applications for consumption by the business community and the general public.
The Government Online Services Portal (e-Services) is one of the e-Ghana projects being implemented by the Ministry of Communications and NITA.
The project is a US$40 million World Bank-funded project which aims to increase transparency and efficiency in the delivery of government services to the public.
The e-Service Portal consists of a public data centre, government portal, web content management system, online payment interface, e-Forms and workflow, documentation and management system, security and authentication system, deployed over government Wide Area Network (WAN).
One other feature of the Portal is the e-payment interface which is a payment/commerce infrastructure to help government departments deliver payment services to the public and businesses online.
The platform will accept various payments such as debit/credit cards (national and international), cash, voucher and cheque payment, mobile payment, bank branded cards/direct credit and bank transfers (national and international).
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Quelle/Source: Ghana Government, 28.07.2012
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