The contributions of Dr Umar Saif could be recognised by the fact that he has been awarded with one of the world’s best and prestigious awards in the field of Science and Technology.
His radical and innovative projects of e-governance and mobile governance were appreciated by World Bank and international media like CNN, BBC, New York Times, His contributions as the PITB chairman are indeed commendable, soon after joining his charge, he eradicated corruption from the board and the PITB is now playing an instrumental role in assisting the government to improve public sector performance.
Dr Saif’s vision of instant, speedy and thriving administration was materialised successfully by deploying smart phone-based early epidemic warning system that played a vital role in the fight against the dengue epidemic in Punjab. The said system was used by more than twenty government departments in all districts across Punjab. Hundreds of field workers were provided smart phones to upload, geo-tag pictures of their anti-dengue tasks, while more than 650,000 pictures of anti dengue activities were received from all over Punjab. This success story leading towards the good governance did not end there.
Now the PITB is working on numerous computerised and digital applications to help the government of Punjab for the monitoring of various departments’ work like Department of Health, Livestock and Dairy, Agriculture and Punjab Police are few instances. Under the Health Watch Program, EDOs, DDOs, Dos and other officers inspect healthcare facilities on regular bases using smart phones.
The Irrigation department is also using smart phone based applications to report and monitor daily activities like their daily visits and water level discharge. Punjab Police in the provincial capital is successfully utilising smart phone applications to geo-tag location of FIR and analyze crime hot spots; the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has been successfully using smart phone applications to report its cleaning activities in the metropolitan after Eidul Azha. The PITB has also introduced another mobile phone (non-smart) based initiative to track the movement of field workers.
The objectives of various departments have been achieved with the help of unmatchable public administrative measures of Dr Umar Saif. His technological intervention has equipped the Punjab government with state-of-the-art monitoring capability to track the progress of government departments. Other provinces like KPK are also following the successfully implemented projects of the PITB.
