Buildout of ICT Boosting Public-Sector Efficiency

• Efficiency in the public sector is being enhanced through the buildout of broadband infrastructure and the enhancement of the eGov Data Centre. Finance Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, made the declaration as he addressed the recent Caribbean Public Sector Financial Management Conference in Kingston, where he gave an update on gains made under the Public Sector Transformation Programme.
• He noted that information and communications technology (ICT) is a critical pillar in the modernisation of the public sector. “Under the Public Sector Transformation Programme, we now have a dedicated broadband infrastructure that connects over 200 government offices in the greater Kingston Metropolitan area and over 500 more outside of Kingston, which includes schools and police stations and other government establishments,” Minister Clarke said.
• He mentioned that, as part of the ICT aspect of transformation, the Government managed to make a significant investment in the eGov Data Centre. In March, the Minister announced that upgrades were completed to the centre at a cost of $600Mn. “Under the Public Sector Transformation Programme, we are able to massively scale up the storage capacity of the existing data centre and to massively enlarge the cloud infrastructure available to it,” he indicated.
• With the upgrades in the capacity of the facility to deliver, there is now the possibility of consolidating existing data centres across the public service into the eGov Data Centre. These upgrades will provide economies of scale as the government seeks to ensure that the service from the data centre is at the best international standards as far as security and cyber threats are concerned and other service standards.

 (Source: JIS)