All Govt Ministries to get E-Offices: Senate Committee

To ensure efficiency, accuracy, good governance, transparency, and accountability in decision making and delivery of efficient and cost-effective public services to Pakistani citizens, the federal government is working on the e-offices system in the country.

The Senate Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication have agreed to recommend all the Senate Committees to take compliance feedback of their respective ministries on e-offices.

The committee has been told that out of 23 schemes proposed by the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), 8 schemes are currently up and running whereas 15 schemes are yet to come. For these projects, a total of 16,475 million rupees have been demanded from which 9,814 million rupees will be applied to the new schemes and 6,661 million rupees will be stored for the upcoming schemes.

Furthermore, the committee was informed that the flagship project of the ministry to ensure e-offices in the government departments is in process. In this project, 27 ministries out of 45 have already reached level 2 of the e-office setup and 15 ministries are still in process. The e-office project will also include automation of Parliament records as well.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Rubina Khalid, at the Parliament House on Tuesday. Senators Rukhsana Zuberi, Dr. Ashok Kumar, Abdul Rehman Malik, Fida Muhammad, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Khalid Maqbool, CEO USF, Member Enforcement PTA, among others attended the meeting.

The committee also took notice of the lack of proper telecommunication services by the telecom companies in Malakand Division. They asked PTA and USF to make sure that companies are only given permission for franchises in these areas when they ensure proper services in the region. They also stressed to take strong action against the companies who are not providing the services.