(Sarawak Tribune; March 19th, 2004)

SIBU – The target year for the full implementation of the state's electronic government (EG) programme is 2008.This was disclosed by the State Secretary, Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Haji Husain, at the launching of Sibu Municipal Council's "Electronic Local Authority (eLA)" programme at Kingwood Hotel yesterday.

"The public would be able to receive the full range of government services virtually, anytime anywhere, at their own convenience and at a cost that is affordable," he said, adding that intermediate targets towards full EG status had been established, one of which was that all state government bills and all payments received would be made available on-line by the end of 2005.

Aziz, who is also deputy chairman of the State Information Tech-nology and Resources Council (SITRC), said the payments included those for which no bills were issued.

An example, he said, was land rent payments and payment for licences, adding that the state government had developed and implemented on-line bill delivery and payment system called electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) system since 1999 for such transactions.The eLA, he explained, was part of the EG programme and the state government considered the local authorities as a very important component of its machinery.

"Local authorities, the third tier in the government infrastructure, provide critical services to the local constituents," he said."Recognising this, the state has decided to help local authorities acquire and implement ICT systems. We realise that we cannot not wait for local authorities to implement the systems at their own paces. Even if they could do it, it would be non-uniform and would take too long. So last year, we decided to fund the acquisition of ICT software to enable all local authorities in Sarawak to fully computerize their operations."

With this, he hoped that all local authorities in Sarawak would become fully computerised so that their service delivery would improve.

"In our EG program, we will provide quality service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We must not be bound by office operating hours and other constraints. We expect the public to require and demand our service anytime they need it. This means we are driven by their requirement," he said."This will take some changes in the way the public service is organised and operates, and we are now implementing various quality and acculturation initiatives to change the way the public service views itself and its customers."

Abdul Aziz also expects the local authorities to play their part in leading the local community towards the development of what has come to be called the "k-mindset".

Over the year, he said, the local authorities have lagged behind the rest of the public sector in the usage of ICT.With the offer of assistance and funding, he said, he did not expect local authority to lag behind the rest of the public service anymore.

"I will be most disappointed if there are local authorities that still persist in their old ways of doing business and do not seriously and quickly look to offer their services on-line," he said.

Earlier on, he expressed gladness that Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) has chosen to be among the first to implement the eLA in the state.The Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications, Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh; Assistant Minister of Public Health, Dr Soon Choon Teck; Chairman of SMC, Datuk Robert Lau, and incumbent Lanang MP, Tiong Thai King, were among those present at the function.