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2005 deadline for e-Government Courtesy of By Malai Hassan Othman
According to the Permanent Secretary at the Prime
Minister's Office, Dato Paduka
Haji Awg Hazair Abdullah, the Government of His Majesty the Sultan
and Yang Di-Pertuan of He said the government mission in the application
of the E-Government is to provide a wide-ranging on-line government services.
The E-Government is also a mean to achieve our vision of the 21st Century
Public Services that would be more innovative, productive, effective,
efficient, competitive and dynamic.
These can be seen later, Insya
Allah, when the electronic services are applied to the registration of birth
and death, renewal of driving licences, school
registration, university entry, labour and
immigration processes and even in the administration of marriage affairs, he
said. Similarly in the matter of bill payment and medical consultation, he
added. He said the government has set year 2005 as the
deadline for the full implementation of the E-Government system. To that
effect, some $1 billion has been allocated to realise
the E-Government programmes, according to the
Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office. "Actually we could not afford to delay it
any longer. Year 2005 is just three years away. We must act now and move
forward, especially considering that the Prime Minister's Office is the
premier government agency in the government machinery," said Dato Haji Hazair. "We need to show good example and good
leadership. While we (in JPM) expect other ministries to
move, we on the other hand do not want to be seen as not moving,"
added Dato Haji Hazair at an E-Government Leadership seminar cum
workshop. The seminar for the heads of departments and other administrative
officers at the Prime Minister's Office was held at the Civil Services
Institution or IPA. Syabas Technology conducted it
in cooperation with IBM of the According to Dato Haji Hazair, the Government of
His Majesty the Sultan has allocated some $81 million out of the $1 billion
budget (to change the current government administration into E-Government
system) to JPM. The rest, he added, has been distributed to other ministries
and departments for the implementation of the E-Government programmes. Eighty per cent of the $81 million budget
allocation (to JPM), pointed out the Permanent Secretary, is set aside for
the implementation of the programmes for
E-Government services. "At the same time an E-Government Master Plan has
already been drawn up and approved as a guideline for the implementation of
the E-Government projects." He said a committee called Executive Committee of
E-Government Programmes would carry out the
implementation of the E-Government projects. The committee comprised all the permanent
secretaries in the government, explained Dato Haji Hazair. "With the budget and all the facilities
provided, it is now our responsibility to implement the programmes
the best we could. There is no reason why we could not plan and move the
E-Government programmes in our respective
departments. Not unless we are not interested to implement them," said Dato Haji Hazair. On JPM's E-Government programmes, Dato Haji Hazair noted that in JPM
itself, several officials from the Information Technology and State Store
have been appointed to identify, plan and implement the E-Government programmes. He said a proposal has also been drawn up to
introduce Enterprise Data Centre and Network Infrastructure dubbed as 'PMOnet' at the Prime Minister's Office and its
departments. The PMOnet , he said, will be the central network for all the
departments under JPM with link to other government agencies and the public. Reminding them of their role and responsibility
in the E-Government programmes, Dato
Haji Hazair stressed that
as heads of departments, they would know better what area of services in
their respective agencies need to go electronic. They should also by now initiate programmes to increase the ICT capability of their
officers and staff, such as in the use of e-mail, electronic document
transfer and the use of Intranet in their communication, advised Dato Haji Hazair.
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