- Several projects launched to help modernise government services through the multi-million shilling e-Government initiative are currently not working despite millions of tax payers’ money having been used to install them.
- Kenyans online have repeatedly complained about services like the SMS passport and ID tracking service which was supposed to provide Kenyans with enquiries about the progress of their passport or ID applications.
- The stalled projects raise questions of the ability of various departments in the government to fully implement and maintain large, expensive ICT projects.
- Local IT experts are however, stating that if the government does not take appropriate steps to ensure the maintenance and updating of the software and hardware systems are done appropriately, all these projects risk failure.
- Another reason that has been advanced for the collapse of electronic systems is that they were designed by foreign software companies and therefore, maintenance and any upgrading has to be done by the same companies and this means extra expenses.
Poor implementation of government ICT projects is holding back the country’s quest to become a knowledge driven economy.
Several projects launched to help modernise government services through the multi-million shilling e-Government initiative are currently not working despite millions of tax payers’ money having been used to install them.
Kenyans online have repeatedly complained about services like the SMS passport and ID tracking service which was supposed to provide Kenyans with enquiries about the progress of their passport or ID applications.
Users were provided with a short code through which they could send a text with unique tracking numbers and know whether or not their IDs or passports were ready for collection. A similar online portal of the same service was also provided.
Today however, two years after the services were launched, users have been forced to revert to the manual system of visiting immigration offices and queuing for hours since the services are not working.
Other online services by the government that have similarly become inactive include the education portal at elimu.education.go.ke. The portal is currently down and candidates and parents cannot get services like registering for their exams and confirming the subjects selected.
The stalled projects raise questions of the ability of various departments in the government to fully implement and maintain large, expensive ICT projects.
This is of special concern because several government offices and parastatals are in the process of digitalising their old manual service systems.
Save money
Notable among them is Kenyatta National Hospital’s digitisation project through which over 40 million patient records will be turned to electronic data.
The move is expected to drastically improve on speed, accuracy and save the largest referral hospital in East Africa millions of shillings in operational costs each year.
The ministries of Lands, Immigrations and Registration of Persons, and the Judiciary are all undertaking similar multi-million digitisation projects.
Local IT experts are however, stating that if the government does not take appropriate steps to ensure the maintenance and updating of the software and hardware systems are done appropriately, all these projects risk failure.
“We have seen projects that are launched with a lot of pomp and they work perfectly well the first few months but somewhere down the line something goes wrong,” states Michael Theuri, a systems analyst and CEO of Tric Technologies.
“Often times the problem is in the maintenance of the systems. An example is a system that is designed without accounting for an upsurge in the number of users. So if it is a system for checking exam results and all candidates log in to check their results the system cannot handle the traffic and it crashes.”
Another reason that has been advanced for the collapse of electronic systems is that they were designed by foreign software companies and therefore, maintenance and any upgrading has to be done by the same companies.
This means extra expenses and given the government’s lengthy budgeting, tendering and procurement processes, the systems remain down for the longest time and even longer if the officials are changed.
The failure of government systems and portals further inhibits the growth of the local software industry.
This is because some developers design applications grounded on government services and serve as an interface between users and government portals.
“Consider a mobile app that helps users identify which high schools are closest to them to help parents with students who have just sat their KCPE,’’ explains Mr Theuri.
“If the Ministry of Education had an online list of all the public and private high schools then the developer would work out a data sharing agreement with the ministry and have his product out much faster and at a lower cost.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Frankline Sunday
Quelle/Source: Daily Nation, 29.08.2012
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