Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
E-Governance project has nothing to do with internet – Alexei Ramotar
– Infrastructural development phase concludes month-end
By Keeran Danny
“If you felt the E-Governance project is internet then you are barking up the wrong tree. E-Governance has nothing to do with internet. In fact, internet, in my opinion, in offices should be blocked. What E-Governance does is have a data centre where there is a database repository.” This notion was emphasised by Alexei Ramotar, Project Manager of the E-Governance Unit, during an interview with this publication yesterday.
He stressed that in Government Ministries, a majority of the computers are used as typewriters. However, he believes a computer should be used to build applications and programmes and have a database management system to allow processing of payments and
E-Governance Project Manager, Alexei Ramotar
information quickly.
“When people reduce E-Governance to internet there is no point in us building what we build just for internet…Internet is not part of the E-Governance project…We would still need internet to be provided by a provider…This project is just for e-governance,” Ramotar said.
He explained that by August month-end, the US$32M project would be ready for utilization by Government Ministries and agencies. The project will be rolled out in a phased manner and could take a number of years because of its expansive nature.
Ramotar said that by April month-end the infrastructure development aspect of the coastal E-Governance project would be completed. The Chinese contractor, Huawei Technologies Ltd, is currently installing Long Term Evolution Radios at the 54 tower sites, after which the optimization element would commence. Though the contractor is expected to leave in August, there is a defects liability period of one year.
According to Ramotar, Government Ministries and agencies would be integrated into the project in a phased manner, because it would be impossible to have them on board all at once.
“We would have to have massive staffing and massive bureaucracy…We can’t afford to do that. What we would have is to bring on agencies one at a time. It is a phased project that would take many years,” he asserted.
Explaining the lengthiness of the E-Governance systems, Ramotar said if Guyana were to implement electronic medical records – as is done in many countries – it would take about 10 to 15 years to be rolled out. As such, the Unit is looking at the long-term strategy of executing the entire project.
“There is no end to E-Governance… There is always additional stuff we bring on…Our project was implementation of infrastructure…Eventually, there will come a time when we will have to expand from infrastructure….This project was mainly building…There is no time span for implementation,” he said.
While not all entities would be facilitated at once, the Unit has communicated with all Government Ministries, and agencies such as the Guyana Revenue Authority. In fact, the Unit has connected its routers to all Ministries to facilitate the project.
“We would be doing testing now and then we have to come up with a strategy as to who would come on,” Ramotar noted.
He suggested that the Ministry of Home Affairs should be one of the first Ministries to come on board because of the vast potential of the project. He said with the E-Governance project that Ministry could connect all cameras to a centralized location. This would be best done through a fibre network which would allow HD cameras, processing of information quickly and licence plate recognition.
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