Kahramaa's acting manager for human resources Abdulatif Khalid al-Mana noted that there has been a significant change in the corporation's functioning after its signing of an agreement with the e-government department. The agreement for using e-government services was part of Kahramaa's endeavour to provide the most advanced services, al-Mana said. "It has been on the directives of our chairman and Minister for Energy and Industry HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah that we started implementing e-government services in the corporation," he added.
Though the services were initially introduced in Kahramaa on a trial basis, now the corporation has realised its necessity in view of the developments taking place in all sectors. Customers who in the beginning had some difficulty with work under e-government are now in favour of more facilities, he said. He cited the facility to make utility payments in banks. "It can also be done even without going to any office."
Al-Mana said the corporation, which signed the agreement with the e-government department on July 7, has renewed 269 visas of employees and their family members online though work on renewal of visas began only on July 26.
The e-government programme has helped considerably reduce paperwork and saved man hours, al-Mana said. The workload of staff has also been reduced.
While it used to take three to seven days to renew visas, passports, driving licences and health cards, now it is usually done in a day, he said.
Since July 26, the corporation has renewed 84 health cards online. "Some 46 passport related issues have also been dealt through the same system," he said.
Al-Mana thanked the General Directorate for Passports, Naturalisation and Aliens Affairs (Immigration department) and General Postal Corporation (GPC) for expediting services to both customers and staff of Kahramaa as part of their efforts to make the e-government programme a success.
Speaking later, Hashim Abdullah al-Sadah, a top official of the e-government department, said more and more departments and companies are making efforts to implement e-government services. By later this year, the areas covered will be extended by at least 30%, he said.
"Efforts are also on to get work related to exit permits done online," he added.
Al-Sadah said that of the 22 services identified by the e-government department, work on 11 has already been completed.
Quelle: MENAFN, 29.09.2004
