Zambia is on the right path in her e-government program, says the country’s ambassador to Germany Anthony Mukwita. Ambassador Mukwita says Germany and many countries in Europe are already reaping the benefits of efficient governments and the reduction of costs in the running of government machinery.
“Most transactions here are now electronic and may be conducted from the mobile devise you carry in your hands resulting in lower transaction costs and saving on time”, says ambassador Mukwita.
The senior envoy was commenting on a research undertaken by the Policy Monitoring and Research Center, PMRC, and headed by its Chief Executive Officer Benadette Deka that indicates that Zambia “has been able to save K72 million on payslip printing and K68 million on the cost of paper annually”.
Quoting Smart Zambia, an e-Government division in the office of the President, PMRC says the e-paylisp system has helped curb the long standing problem of ghost workers that had remained on the payroll and drawing a government salary.
In addition, PMRC notes that the Smart Zambia initiative on payslips has environmental benefits “because the phasing out of paper payslips entails reduction in cutting down of trees and low energy issues”.
“On the contribution to a clean environment and clean energy, the Zambian government is already working with the German government resulting in an initiative to set up 100 megawatt mini solar plants in different parts of the country”, ambassador Mukwita says adding, “this is in line with President Edgar Lungu’s vision of a diversified energy sector for Zambia”.
The Zambian envoy has pledged support to Smart Zambia in their efforts to introduce IT solutions that could help realize President Lungu’s vision for an efficient and effective public sector.
“This is why the Zambian government has an embassy in this part of the world where e-Government is already a reality and examples abound regarding implementation experiences. We stand ready to identify any kind of technical partnerships or IT solutions that may be required back home”, ambassador Mukwita says.
According to the World Bank, “E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions”.
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Quelle/Source: Lusaka Times, 08.04.2018
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