Info Ministry claims remarkable achievements under 100-point reform agenda

Kathmandu: The Ministry of Information and Communications has claimed it made remarkable achievements under the 100-point reform agenda, which was approved by the Cabinet two months back.

Most of the issues under the Ministry were enforced, it added. Most of the activities related to digital governance, simplification of service delivery, expansion of Nagarik App, integration of government services and promotion of accountability in public services have been accomplished, the Ministry said, adding that some are, however, under the implementation phase.

The integrated government office management system has been expanded to 704 government offices. It is aimed at making service smooth, transparent and paperless.

As per the Ministry update, the integrated system has now covered 22 federal ministries, 354 federal bodies, 284 provincial bodies, 62 local levels, and four corporations/agencies. For running the integrated system, the employees from 27 bodies, including 22 ministries, have been given orientation.

Even a collaboration is underway with UNDP to run a separate system at local and provincial levels. Additional features are incorporated in Nagarik App so that various certificates can be downloaded from it.

It comes under the campaign of digital governance, the Ministry said, adding one can now download police reports, Nepal Engineering Council certificates and admission cards for Public Service Commission’s exams.

Even personal details of employees can be downloaded from it. Efforts have already been initiated to make registration (service) of birth, death and personal incident available in Nagarik App. It requires integration of six more services, so listing of agencies and their operation is going on.

The government websites have been made disabled-friendly along with the addition of new features that can be accessed easily by people with various sorts of disabilities. This scheme is expected to foster digital inclusion, thereby bridging the digital divide.

A committee has been formed to study the time and pace of the government offices for their timeliness, transparency and accountability.

The Department of Information Technology has already formed an expert team of IT experts to ensure hassle-free and middlemen-free services in the acquisition of citizenship certificate, passport and driving license. These services are made faceless with the adoption of digital technology.

The IT team is providing technical assistance to various agencies untiringly. The government has forwarded work to develop a system for automatically filling in details to free citizens of the hassle of producing the same details repeatedly.

The Department of Transport Management and the Department of Passport have been linked to eliminate the repetition of filling in similar individual details.

However, the Ministry wrote to the concerned agencies to amend the Good Governance Regulation so that interoperability of public services provided by banks and financial institutions and the private sector could be assured.

The process for policy and law-making has also been forwarded on digital governance and personal data protection. Even a committee formed for it began preparing a draft on it. Similarly, the concept of the bill on IT and e-governance has been approved by the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.

The Ministry has advanced a process to prepare a national integrated structure framework so that Nepal’s entire digital governance system can be ensured an integrated framework in essence. A committee formed in this regard prepared a preliminary draft with the basic principles.

A Procedure on Operation of the Citizen Service Centre, the system required for time taken to avail services, automatic upward information flow in case of delay in government files, and the work related to digital signatures are, however, awaiting full implementation. Currently, the Department of IT is under the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

RSS