LAHORE(National Times)- Punjab goes paperless as Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday launched “government-to-government, government-to-business and government-to-citizen” services.
The CM said the Punjab government had become the first province to establish e-FOAS, e-Procurement, e-Pay, e-Auction, OneMap, HRMIS and a data warehouse.
She presided over an online meeting to review the progress in digitalisation and the automation. Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Faisal Yousaf briefed the participants.
The CM directed the PITB to take steps for importing paperless automation software and ordered continuous feedback from applicants.
She said that an end-to-end automated paperless system would prove effective in eliminating corruption. “We want to save people from the inconvenience of visiting government offices for even minor tasks.”
Ms Nawaz said services provided through a digital automation system without requiring applicants to reveal their identity would help eliminate corrupt elements.
“We are putting every sector, every department and every institution of Punjab on the path to digitalisation,” she declared and added that the entire team was working as one unit for digitalisation and automation. She said automation services system eliminated the need for interaction with government officials, thereby ensuring transparency.
The meeting was informed that more than 6,000 systems had been connected with the PITB’s central system in the province, while 600 organisations and institutions had been digitally connected through e-FOAS. The e-filing system had issued 176,173 summary notices and resulted in savings of Rs9.1m.
The briefing further revealed that smart monitoring of development projects had established a new benchmark for transparency in development schemes. More than 25,000 suppliers had been connected with the province-wide e-procurement system, under which digital purchases worth Rs6tr and 1.29m tenders had been processed.
“The e-Procurement system had introduced a transparent, end-to-end tendering mechanism without requiring applicants to visit any government office, resulting in savings of Rs1.3 million. Revenue collection through transactions had reached Rs1.137bn,” the meeting was told.
