In the age of information technology, when citizens increasingly rely on websites to communicate with the government, the Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) of the Ministry of IT has failed to develop the websites of three federal ministries since their creation on July this year.
The ministries of Human Resource Development, Professional and Technical Training and National Harmony constituted on July 29 have no official websites despite more than seven weeks passing since their creation. The names of these three ministries (divisions) have also not been enlisted in the list of ministries/division on government of Pakistan’s official website (www.pakistan.gov.pk) which carries names of 29 ministries.
It is to be mentioned here that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on July 29 had constituted three new ministries with divisions namely the ministries of National Harmony, Human Resource Development and Professional and Technical Training. It is also pertinent to mention here that IT ministry has had no full fledged minister for the last three years and Prime Minister Gilani is minister in-charge of the ministry.
The delay in developing websites of three important ministries by Electronic Government Directorate also mocks tall claims made by the directorate in the past years. Electronic Government Directorate in its vision paper “E-Government Strategy and 5-Year Plan for the Federal Government” drafted in May, 2005 states: “E-Government is defined as the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support processes within the government as well as for the delivery of services to its consumers, including other organizations, citizens as well as businesses.”
Further elaborating E-Government, the paper says: “G2C: Government-to-Citizen includes all Citizens of Pakistan. Provide easy to find, easy to use, points-of-service while providing higher speed, higher quality, and greater accessibility.”
These three ministries have important departments/subjects like National Harmony Division deals with policy and legislation with regard to interfaith harmony, international agreements and commitments in respect of all religious communities and implementation thereof. The ministry also looks after Minorities’ Welfare Fund and National Commission for Minorities. The Ministry of Professional and Technical Training controls National Education Assessment Centre, Islamabad; National Training Bureau, Islamabad; Pakistan Manpower Institute; National Internship Programme (NIP); and all matters relating to National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and National Education Foundation (NEF).
In the same manner, Overseas Employment Corporation, Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, Workers Welfare Fund, Employees’ Old-age Benefit Institution like important organization fall under the administrative control of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Meanwhile, the Auditor-General of Pakistan in a special audit report on Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) Ministry of Information Technology, has also pointed out that the directorate could not achieve its objectives.
The report says that EGD prepared 46 PSDP projects costing Rs 2.5 billion for achieving its targeted objectives but despite incurring expenditure of Rs 1.14 billion upto June 2008, EGD could not achieve intended targets, such as to implement a less-paper environment in all government offices, produce a centralised database for all government record, networking between each department of the government and movement of files within and outside the organization using e-services. “Several projects were initiated, which either could not be completed or the infrastructure deployed was under-utilised or not being utilised at all. As a result, the government offices have so far not been able to effectively leverage Information and Communication Technology to improve public service delivery,” the report says. When contacted, Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Training Riaz Hussain Pirzada said that EGD should perform its duty. “What can we do if the directorate is oblivious to its duties,” he added.