Ireland casts doubt on student fingerprinting: The Irish Information Commissioner's Office threatened action to prevent schools from arbitrarily deploying fingerprinting technology. It told the first few Irish schools known to be establishing biometric systems that they need to have a good reason for doing so, otherwise it will order schools to remove registration systems it considers excessive. Assistant Information Commissioner Tony Delaney has written to seven schools suspected of fingerprinting children. In its guidance for schools issued this month, the office indicated that it might not approve of schools fingerprinting pupils. It said that under Irish law, if fingerprinting wasn't necessary, then the Data Protection Act stipulates it shouldn't be done. Read more on this story as reported on ENN.
Irish police to get digital radios: Ireland's Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has initiated a trial of the State's new emergency services digital radio system. Telecoms consortium Tetra Ireland Ltd is currently working with the Garda Siochana, government departments and other agencies to roll out a service performance evaluation pilot in parts of Dublin and areas of County Meath. The new digital radio system is based on the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) standard. It will allow Gardai to communicate and send data on an encrypted channel that functions regardless of the state of mobile phone networks, and the new handsets will include 'single push' buttons which transmit a signal to a dispatcher in the event of an emergency. Read more on this story on ENN.
Edinburgh streamlines HR systems: The city council of Edinburgh in Scotland has signed a STG10 million contract with telecoms firm BT to modernise its human resources department. The new system, called e-HR, aims to streamline the council's core HR processes, such as recruitment, health and safety, and absence management. It is also designed to help managers access information more easily and cut down on paper transactions. The council said the project is expected to deliver savings of STG12 million by 2016, with STG1.5 million saved per annum from 2009/2010 onwards. "This project will introduce a self-service function that is more efficient and responsive to staff. We are transforming our HR service and introducing new management practices on the back of the IT system. Savings will be realised because there will not be as many paper forms circulating between offices, and less paper chasing," said Andrew Unsworth, the council's head of e-government.
US e-gov satisfaction down slightly: Citizen satisfaction with US federal government websites declined marginally in the first quarter of 2007, but users are still having a more positive experience with e-government than with 'offline' government services. The latest E-Government Satisfaction report from the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) indicates that customer satisfaction with federal websites dropped 0.7 percent from last quarter to an aggregate score of 73.4 points. E-government achieved a higher satisfaction rating than citizen experience with the federal government overall, which scored 72.3 points in a December ACSI report. Nonetheless, the report shows that the public sector has not evolved as much as the private sector in terms of online user experience: e-commerce sites scored 80 points and e-business sites attained 76.5 points on the ACSI 100-point scale.
Pakistan's health ministry signs e-gov contract: The Pakistani government has awarded a contract to IT services firm NetSol Technologies to provide its Ministry of Health with a range of software solutions. The contract will see the US-headquartered firm develop, implement and maintain customised enterprise software solutions for the ministry, as well as providing training and technical support for users. NetSol will roll out automated solutions to manage key day-to-day operations for the ministry, such as drug import/export management, drug pricing management and online medical complaints, as well as enabling inter-departmental and public access to essential information contained in documents and images. NetSol said the aims of the project include improving internal efficiency for the health ministry, providing e-services for citizens, and enhancing the transparency of interactions between the government and its citizens.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Sylvia Leatham
Quelle/Source: ElectricNews, 28.03.2007
