Commenting on the meeting, Dr. Kharbash said: 'The flexibility with which the overall project has been approved reflects the invested interest and responsibility of the Committee's members. Today, the Committee has pursued priority projects in a structured manner that is coordinated with the overall E-Government implementation program in order to achieve the key objectives of cost reduction and service enhancement by adopting numerous e-systems, including e-Government Procurement system, e-Human Resources Management system, e-Student system, and e-Business system'.
'We aim at establishing an e-environment to help us finalize and achieve world-class UAE e-Government with cutting edge ITC technology. This objective complements our drive to achieve high performance and efficiency government, and enhances our efforts to provide corporate sector and individuals, UAE nationals and residents, with up to date solutions for any anticipated problem,' added Dr. Kharbash.
Adopting centralized design and decentralized implementation approaches; the Steering Committee approved a federal government accounting system that ensures unified financial and accountancy procedures for all government transactions. But designing and implementing the projects and allocating financial resources remain within the power of each ministry. This system is regarded as one of the main pillars supporting performance based budgeting as it strengthens auditing and financial scrutiny.
And, in order to provide fast and efficient services, the Committee approved the e-Expat system, which provides a single entry point to the expatriates of the UAE to process their visa and residency services, labour permits, health cards, and other services. This will allow for a 'One Stop Shop' linking federal departments to provide a common interface through which all the citizens and business communities can identify and obtain all required information, permits, and approvals.
The Committee also approved e-Procurement, which is a comprehensive and systemic process in which governments either establish agreements for the acquisition or the purchase of products/services using IT systems. This is done through different channels such as electronic ordering; purchasing cards, reverse auctions, and automatic accounting systems. Other systems that were approved are the e-Diplomat system which provides a faster and secure communication channels for the diplomatic community to provide information and services, the e-Citizen system which provides a single entry point to the citizens of the UAE to use specific services offered by the Federal government entities, and the e-Project system that allows the Federal government to access, monitor, and manage their Federal projects.
The E-Government project has been designed in such a way to allow the government officials responsible for the project to implement the programs and systems in a structured 'wave' stages whereby each wave has its own milestones and benchmarks and projects can span more than one wave or waves can overlap. The initiative was introduced as a tool to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the UAE Federal Government and is a key component in sustaining the country's competitiveness.
Quelle: AME Info, 21.01.2004
