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BASSETERRE, St Kitts (SKNIS) -- The government of St Kitts and Nevis has taken another step forward in its bid to change its operational model so as to reduce inefficiencies, cut costs, and improve service to the public.

Officials from various departments including the Treasury, Inland Revenue, Customs, Sustainable Development, Human Resources, Police, Education and Water Services met with representatives from the Department of Technology to review government’s enterprise architecture framework and standards model and promote total cost of ownership.

“This is not an effort the Department of Technology can put forward [exclusively],” Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy advisor Pierre Bowrin said. “It takes a whole-of-government view.”

As such, the February 19 and 20 half-day workshop participants were selected as they represent key IT support units within the public sector. Bowrin described the collaborative exchange as productive and explained that persons appreciated the need to improve the return on government’s investment in ICTs.

“What we found is that many of the departments are collecting the same data but are not sharing it and it would be far more effective and efficient with a consolidated approach that we collect a core of data sets, and the individual departments or ministries that need specific data that they would collect it themselves,” the senior IT official disclosed.

“... Another area we are looking to address is with regard to the infrastructure. We are using many types of printers. Within the government we are using many types of PCs (personal computers). There needs to be an effort to standardize what printers we use, what computers and servers we use so that as much as possible we are using common items that will allow us to save on the operational costs – things like toners and such.”

Bowrin disclosed that the core group will meet regularly to ensure that the process continues. The initiative is one of the outputs of the OECS E-Government Regional Integration Project (EGRIP) which aims to reduce the cost of doing business, improve public sector efficiency, transparency and accountability as well as facilitate sub-regional harmonization and integration.

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