CDA’s e-governance project in a limbo

Islamabad :The long-awaited initiative of E-governance in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has again come to halt due to ongoing inquiry in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for non-completion of project in stipulated time-period.

The E-governance project initiated in 2006 with cost of Rs175 million to involve citizens in the policy process, illustrating government transparency and accountability and quick disposal of public complaints, may take another year to get fully operational in the CDA.

The recently held meeting of all the relevant stakeholders, chaired by Chairman CDA Amir Ahmed Ali, has decided to proceed with the pending matter of E-governance after the clearance of investigation being conducted by the FIA, an official source in CDA told this agency.

The chairman CDA directed the civic agency’s Director Security to check status of delivery of hardware including laptops for E-service project as well as procured from its own resources, he added.

He said the Ministry of Information Technology in 2014 moved the case to the FIA for investigation and to determine responsibility for the delay, adding the matter was already under trial in Islamabad High Court and Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology had also passed direction to resolve the issue at the earliest.

The project was supposed to be completed by the National Information Technology Board (NITB) in period of 31 months but could not materialize it for certain reasons. The source said the CDA was only the beneficiary of project and was not supposed to finance the project, adding that the NITB was its executing agency and had made only 75 per cent payment to the concerned company (LMKR) for the software development. Around Rs14 million of the agreed payment is still outstanding on the part of NITB, he added.

He admitted the fact that internal resistance was shown by the CDA in the past but now it was extending full support to the project’s vendor (National Information Technology Board) and the project’s vendee (LMKR) for the completion of software.

The official said the delivery of hardware and networking for the project had completed while 70 per cent work on software development. The E-Office Replication, one component of the CDA’s E-governance project, was operational in 35 government departments but the CDA was undone to implement the project, he regretted.

An official source in the NITB said they had submitted its audit report to the IT ministry which was party to the case, adding the application for project was ready to be used by trained the CDA Human Resource (HR).

About the initiative, he said it was a one-window facility which would facilitate the citizens by expediting processes, transparency, decision making and facilitating the HR by saving time and less paper environment.

A representative of the LMKR said the agency had handed over the software to the quarters concerned.