Entire federal government departments being converted on E - Office: Report
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ISLAMABAD: National Information Technology Board (NITB) Director-General Faisal Iqbal Ratyal on Wednesday briefed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication about NITB’s current and upcoming projects.
According to the NITB official, the board plans to convert all federal government offices into “e-offices” by June 2020.
“As of now, the Finance Division, Privatization Division, IT and Telecom Division along with 10 other departments have achieved almost 100pc automation,” the DG stated. “These ministries are at ‘Level-4’ [of automation] which means that there is only 10pc paperwork and that too in case of highly classified documents. Everything else is electronic.”
Next to these, at ‘Level-3’ are Aviation Division, Defence Production Division and Power Division, he said.
“There are 15 departments at ‘Level-2’ including Information and Broadcasting Division, Foreign Affairs Division and Law and Justice Division. Until these divisions are fully automated, the systems and infrastructure already owned by the departments are being utilised while the automation process is underway.”
He said only one department, the Industries and Production Division, is at ‘Level-1’, while there are several at ‘Level-00’ including Human Rights Division, Railways Division, Climate Change Division and Water Resources Division.
“These departments don’t even have the equipment or other related technical capabilities required for automation.”
The parliament members in attendance expressed concerns over lack of modern technological equipment in many significant departments. The NITB DG assured that the board is focusing on these departments as a priority.
In addition to this flagship project of NITB, Faisal told the committee that NITB is also in the process of launching a Whatsapp-like software, besides an alternative to the commercial emailing systems.
