E-offices system to outdo WhatsApp soon

ISLAMABAD: The National Information Technology Board (NITB) Wednesday stated that all federal government offices will be converted into e-offices by June 2020.

This was informed by the officials of NITB in the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology, which met here with MNA Ali Khan Jadoon in the chair.

The committee was apprised that a few ministries have been upgraded as e-offices, while the NITB was working on integration of data system, which will provide a central platform for communication within all the public departments.

The officials said a new communication system on the lines of WhatsApp was being introduced for the federal government employees as most of the intra-government communication was being done through WhatsApp, which increased the risk of important data leak.

The NITB officials apprised the House that one million online applications have been received under ‘Kamyab Jawan Programme’. In case of denying application, the bank is responsible to give an explanation to the applicant. They said that the PM Youth Loan Programme has received 7,000 applications over the last five years and their data has also been included in the current programme data.

An official from the ministry informed the committee members that digitisationof federal departments was underway and e-tendering was also one of the priorities of the IT Ministry.

To a question regarding fake news on social media, an official said that big social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been approached by the government and efforts to develop standard operating procedures (SoPs) were underway through different official meetings with the representatives of social media sites. Officials from the NITB also informed the House about another programme named ‘BootCamp” under which the officials from international giant IT hub Silicon Valley will be invited to train the federal employees regarding different operations under the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications.

The PPP MNA Naz Baloch suggested the House that this training should not be restricted only for the federal employees, but provincial employees of different government organisations should also be given opportunity to get the training from IT experts of Silicon Valley.