The government is going to implement a fully-fledged e-filing system in ministries and government divisions in March this year aiming to digitilise Bangladesh under the Access to Information programme, official sources said.
As part of developing a strong information and communication system among the government agencies, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will execute the e-filing system in all ministries offices.
The system is currently run at a few ministries and divisions as a pilot project.
Sources at the Finance Division said the e-filing system in ministries and divisions will make the offices environment-friendly, reduce corruption and bribery among the government officials and maintain government secrecy of file transfer activities.
The e-filing system will be handled by a single person to minimise the risk of information getting leaked outside the government offices, the sources added.
PMO Secretary Suraiya Begum recently sent a letter to Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed in this regard. It says all government offices should be connected to the Internet with maximum bandwidth for the e-filing system. Though it is initially being set up in the ministries and divisions, the system will eventually extended to upazila level.
Office-based local area network will be set up, and the authorities will provide necessary equipment such as computers to the users.
The users will be given training in basic use of ICT and computers, such as Bangla Unicode and emails, the letter says.
The ministries and divisions will also arrange scanners and point-of-sale printers to introduce the e-filing system.
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the second version of the e-filing system is an updated edition of this programme that will definitely bring all the government offices to a new era of information and communication technology.
“After this technology is introduced, use of paper will be reduced to a great extent in different government organisations,” he said.
The Access to Information (a2i) programme funded by the USAID and UNDP that works for digital innovations, will also establish multimedia classrooms.
The objective of the programme is to increase transparency, improve governance and reduce the time, difficulty and costs of obtaining government services for under-served communities in the country.
The a2i programme was launched in 2007. Implemented by the PMO, the programme heralded a mindset change within the government to embrace ICT as a powerful enabler for the nation’s socio-economic transformation. The time-frame of the project’s first phase was 2006–2011.
