THE lack of human resources in Brunei is a challenge that needs to be overcome to develop Brunei's ICT industry. According to the budget allocation for ICT 2011/2012, only $39 million is set aside for ICT projects.
"The total cost of the budget is set at $938 million for 2011/2012, and only $39 million is set aside for ICT. That means that there are still a lot of projects that are still not completed, my question is what are the problems and recommendations that the Ministry has to overcome the slow progress of these projects and how many per cent of them have already been implemented?" asked Legislative Council member Dato Paduka Hj Idris Hj Abas, at yesterday's Legislative Council meeting.
The question was directed to the Minister of Energy, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Kol (Rtd) Dato Seri Paduka Hj Mohd Yasmin Hj Umar, who admitted that the e-Government projects are "less than satisfactory", and that they have to be given more priority.
"Some of the reasons for the slow progress in the e-Government projects is because of the adding and the deduction of certain project scopes due to reasons that affected the projects," he said.
He added that if the scopes of projects sometimes needed to be redefined, which means additional budget has to be allocated, and the requisition for additional budgets can take more than six months, thereby causing delay in their completion.
However, the main cause of the slow progress in the e-Government projects, that was pin-pointed by the Minister of Energy, is the lack of human resources and expertise in Brunei.
"One of the biggest challenges we have is the lack of human resources, specifically in business process re-engineering (BPR) and project management," he said.
He said that the average project length is between three to four months, and that an additional challenge includes the withdrawal of suppliers from a project before the completion date.
He added that those are a few reasons why the total budget cannot be spent and that some of the recommendations that include requiring business owners and suppliers to fully understand the scope of the projects, and to have a programme to develop talent and to provide a framework, such as a "competence development" framework and ICT project management.
The services of a legal officer should also be considered and "priority should be given in offering e-Government projects to ICT companies that are AITI Accredited Businesses (AAB) and ICT Accredited Businesses (ICT AB)," he said.
The next project that is underway is the procurement for the infrastructure of a "local area network", that is being prepared by the E-Government National Centre (EGNC), that is expected to start on December 9, 2010.
"Another project that is slated to take off is the 'One Government Network', which is scheduled to be completed by 2010, and we will try to speed up the rest of the projects that come under this topic," he said. He added that until February 2011, there have been 121 e-Government projects that have been implemented that amounts up to $263.2 million, 59 projects that are still in the progress of being implemented, amounting up to $388.7 million and 45 projects amounting to $191.4 million that is still in the pipeline.
"The total budget spent for e-Government Agencies Services (e-GAS) and EGNC projects is only $412.7 million following the contract value, which is 50.6 per cent of the total budget. The remainder of $402.4 million is 49.4 per cent of the total budget for the e-GAS and EGNC," he added.
The Brunei Times
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