Govt working to integrate its departments

The Zimbabwe government is working on a program to integrate all its departments and agencies by the first quarter of next year, a Cabinet Minister has said.

ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera said this when she handed over 70 computers to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works at a function held in the capital on Monday.

“E-government is very essential for us as the Ministry of ICT. We are working on the enterprise architectural modelling where we are going to see an integration of all government departments and indeed, we are working on this, and making sure that we are able to achieve this as early as the first quarter of 2024,” she said.

She explained that using ICT minimises the human interface, thereby reducing corruption.

Mavetera said the use of computers by government departments will also make it possible for citizens to easily access information on government projects and other activities.

“Today’s handover marks an important milestone towards supporting e-government initiatives in local government and public works sectors and I believe that as the Ministry of ICT, with the support of Potraz (the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe) definitely we are going to continue to support e-government initiatives across all government Ministries, departments and agencies,” she said.

Speaking at the same function, Local Government and Public Works Minister Winston Chitando hailed Mutare City Council for implementing an efficient ICT systems and implored other local authorities in the country to emulate the move.

He said the local authority successfully implemented the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which generated massive interests from other councils in the world at the Commonwealth Local Government forum held in Kigali last week.

“Last week there was a Commonwealth Local Government forum in Kigali in Rwanda and there was a session on the side-lines of that forum where Mutare City Council demonstrated that ERP system and the audience which came to listen to that presentation, it was quite a large number of people.

“The feedback was absolutely tremendous to the extent that a number of local authorities in the commonwealth were saying could you please invite us and see what you have done,” said Chitando.

He challenged all local authorities in the country to learn from what the Mutare City Council has done, adding for local authorities to be effective, they need efficient ICT systems.

Chitando said some local authorities are not performing well because they are not collecting revenue as much as they are supposed to do.

He said some of them do not have a database of residents and ratepayer, without which they cannot levy effectively. – New Ziana-ebusinessweekly