ICT savvy Government officers greatly help better public service:Public Management Reforms Min. Sec.
Knowledge of ICT among Government Institutional Heads igreatly helps better public service. This was stated by Secretary to Public Management Reforms Ministry Secretary P. B. Abeykoon. The Secretary said so during his keynote address at a workshop in Hambonthota last Thursday (17.6.2010) on the e-Government policy presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and approved by the cabinet last December.
The one-day workshop organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) at the Peacock Beach Hotel in Hambantota was the third in the series of 10 National Workshop on e-Government Policy aimed at familiarising Government institutional Heads and Chief Innovative Officers with the e-Government Policy.
Addressing about 106 participants comprising District Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries and Chief Innovative Officers of the Southern Province such as the Galle, Hambantota and Matara Districts and the Moneragala District of the Uva Province, Secretary Abeykoon drew widely from his experience for impacting on the audience the value and importance of ICT exposure of Government Institutional Heads in delivering a better public service.
Explaining the objective of the 10 workshops scheduled for 2010 ICTA Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura said that the series of workshop on e-Government policy aimed at accelerating the implementation of the e-Government policy island-wide in a uniform way maintaining professional standards. “This prevents unnecessary repetition of labour, waste of time and energy both on the part of the public and Government employees and contributes to serving the people in a more efficient , effective and people friendly way”, Dewapura emphasised.
The first in the series of National e-Government Policy workshops conducted under the guidance of the Presidential Secretariat was held in Colombo on March 18 this year.
Making the keynote address at the first workshop with about 170 core participants ICTA Chairman P.W. Epasinghe had pointed out that usually it was only the Opposition that spoke about the Government’s Policy statement after the election and forming of the Government.
“In the case of the Government led by His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Government speaks constantly about its election manifesto in its sincere effort to implement the policy. This is true with regard to the ‘’Mahinda Chintana’” policy statement and its extension the “Mahinda Chintana - ‘Vision for the future’ .
In a communication issued to all Government Institutional Heads Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga has urged all to implement the e-Government policy 100 per cent for actively putting into effect the “Mahinda Chintana --‘Vision for the Future’ “. Speaking further the Presidential Secretary has instructed that all concerned Government Institutional Heads including those from Ministries, Departments and Statutary Boards to become familiar with the e-Government policy before the end of the year.
Caption:
From left – Hambantota District Secretary R. M. D. S. Meegasmulla, Galle District Additional District Secretary K. Bandula Harischandra, Matara District Secretary W. K. K. Athukorala and ICTA, Re-engineering Government Programme Director Wasantha Deshapriya participating in one of the many activities for participants at the workshop. This exercise is on the importance of peer coordination for ensuring success in public service.
The above article is carried in today’s(22.6.2010) Daily FT, Daily Mirror and Daily News the last with a 12x 9.5 cm pic and detailed caption
http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/06/22/bus21.asp
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