Hj Sulaiman bin Hj Ismail, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, as the Chairman of the Committee of the e-Government Executive Strategic and Policy Programme (EgSPEC), who was a member of yesterday's panel brought up two main points; whether the e-Government projects' timeline was on track and the issue of the budget.
Also amongst the panel were Pg Dato Paduka Hj Abd. Hamid, Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, in his capacity as a member of the Executive Committee of e-Government Programme (EgPEC), Awg Hj Mahmud, the director of Information Technology and State's Store Department in his capacity as the Secretary of EgPEC, Ministries' IT senior officers and representatives from OIWG, AGC (Attorney General Chambers), and BIT (Brunei National Information Technology Council), ISD, ITSSD, JPKE, and LTN.
The dialogue session functioned as a platform for exchanging ideas to examine the root of the system and to identify proposals for new policies and directives and best practices.
Several participants, comprising officials from various government departments, still lacked an in-depth understanding on the benefits of paperless government and thus inquired on the procedures of projects approval and implementation process.
There was also a call to break through the traditional approach by changing the mindset.
The e-Government programmes/ projects' approval and implementation procedures was the main topic discussed. The process runs through four subsequent phases - Planning, Project Initiation & Contract, Delivery and Payment & Reporting. Each phase has to deal with relevant authority agencies for consultation and approval.
The processing for implementing and approving e-Government projects could take several months, depending on the accurate information handed by the respective Ministry departments to the relevant authority agencies.
The e-Government project, with its budget under the 8th National Development Plan for ICT amounting to more than $500 million including e-business and e-Brunei, has been progressive however there are some issues that still need to be overcome.
Yesterday's dialogue session was thought to be an effective medium to smoothen the implementation process in a faster and efficient way. It was also timely as the deadline of the e-Government implementation process is next year.
The mission stated for e-government programme is to establish electronic governance and services to best serve the nation, with the vision to be an e-smart Government in line with the 21st Century Civil Service vision.
The morning session focused on the operational and short-term implementation of e-Government initiative while the afternoon session focused on the discussions of strategic issues and their implications in the long term. Facilitating the sessions were Dr CT Yong from UBD, Pg Kashmir Han from AGC and Major (U) Amir Hamzah.
Quelle: Borneo Bulletin, 16.03.2004
