MCIT signs 10 E-Governance agreements with other ministries
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) signed a total of 10 agreements in the field of E-Governance cooperation with 9 ministries and also the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission during a press conference which was held at the office of the president’s special representative for good governance and reform on Monday, 11th January, 2016.
At the beginning of the Conference, Mr. Ahmad Zia Masood welcomed the government high ranking official and spoke about the importance e-governance for fighting corruption. He emphasized “It is impossible to fight corruption without the use of ICT and e-governance. Turning to e-governance and use of modern technology is the only and last option to combat the corruption,” He added.
Mr. Masood said that currently we are witnessing that old administration cannot meet new requirements and, added that “ By introduction of e-government initiatives such as today, corruption and bureaucratic steps-that causes disorder and fatigue will decrease, and transparency and efficiency will increase in various government administrations.”
Mr. Abdulrazaq Vahidi minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) speaking at the meeting stated: “By having these agreements singed, 70% of paper work in public administrations will be done through electronic means within coming two years.”
He then, added: “No one can deny the advantages and impacts of technology in one’s life and day to day affairs of the governments. At this stage, we are only focusing on connecting electronic and management information system inside government agencies but for sure, we will expand this gradually to private sector as well.”
According to minister of MCIT, with the introduction of e-government, time management will be executed, opportunities and vulnerabilities are controllable, and costs will be reduced, the quality and speed of service delivery to the people will be improved, transparency and accountability will arise.
Mr. Vahidi noted that current the MoUs signed elaborate responsibilities of MCIT and the receiver of the services. He added that based on MoUs, MCIT was responsible for providing technical consultations, standardizing technical systems of departments, providing advice on simplifying administrative procedures, training and technical capacity building in the administrations, planning of information technology services, system management from data center and etc.
It is noteworthy, in order to launch e-government program, MCIT has hired and introduced 10 information technology experts called as the Chief Information Officers(CIOs) in ministries of Finance, Foreign affairs, Interior Affairs, Information and Culture, Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Livestock, Public Health and Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission) by co-finance of Development Program of the United States of America (USAID).
