Chief Secretary Philemon Luhanjo said, “We are creating an e-government that will be operational soon and it will drastically change the way we do things and manage our resources.”
Mr Luhanjo said that the e-governance will increase the speed of conducting business in government departments, simplify some of the financial procedures and make government machinery more transparent to the public.
He was speaking at the annual auditors meeting held at the National Audit Office. The meeting was attended by auditors from government ministries, departments and related institutions audited by the Controller and Auditor General.
However, Mr Luhanjo said that while e-government was welcome, it would pose a challenge to National Audit Office, if it was not ready for new technology.
Also in attendance at the meeting were media and civil society organisations. The theme of the meeting was “National Audit Office and Stakeholders Partnerships in Improving Audit Outcomes.”
In line with the development, the Controller and Auditor General Ludovick Utouh said with the advancement of technology around the world, audit work is rapidly changing from manual to ICT-based and that the National Audit Office has over the past year embarked on modernising and computerising its audit functions.
“This process is based on a Regularity Audit Manual, which was developed by the National Audit Office in collaboration with the African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions for African English Speaking Countries,” he said.
He said the National Audit Office had adopted TeamMate as a documentation software tool and Audit Command Language as an interrogation tool, which was current being rolled out in all ministries and regional headquarters.
The roll-out process is expected to be complete by the end of 2011 and by 2012, the whole country will have been covered.
Mr Luhanjo said although the process was costly, it was important for the development of the Auditor General’s office and the country in general.
He further added that there was a real danger of the CAG and his office being left behind as the government turned to e-government if they didn’t move with the tide of change.
According to Mr Luhanjo, telecommunication and Internet charges were expected to go down drastically once the Seacom and Eassy projects were launched.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Joseph Mwanmunyange
Quelle/Source: The East African, 29.06.2009
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