The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) has proposed a new project “Digital Locker” with an estimated cost of Rs. 200 million under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2019-20.
According to official documents, the objective and aim of the project is a central secure portal for storing, sharing and signing documents digitally. It would facilitate government agencies and citizens with document tracking, archiving, and information retrieval system. The project is expected to be completed in two years at the federal level.
Senior officials of the Ministry said that any person who once submitted attested documents including birth certificates, educational degrees, CNIC, Character certificate, verification for Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other all sort of documents in the locker, would not require attestation and verification multiple times. It would be a centralized system and any agency that needs verification for any kind of document would access the locker for a specific purpose.
Further, the objective behind the proposed project is to promote the culture of an open system for the government so all relevant services/applications can be integrated, besides work with existing documents, forms, and tools allowing approvals and agreements to be completed digitally.
The documents further revealed that the project is expected to be completed with an estimated cost of Rs. 200 million, of which Rs. 35 million has been demanded for the next fiscal year 2019-20 under the PSDP. The project is proposed to be completed with own resources and not through foreign aid.
The Ministry has proposed another new project “Smart office all government organizations/departments” with an estimated cost of Rs. 573 million.
According to the documents, the objective behind the proposed project is the automation of businesses including email, data sharing, remote connectivity, A/V VOIP facilities using the ICT tools/technologies.
MoITT has demanded Rs. 200 million under the PSDP for 2019-20, which would be met from own resources and no foreign aid is involved.
The private sector could build that in a few months with the right server infrastructure and support. 2 years is a laughable amount of time for such a service.