BRINGING ICT to LOCAL COUNCILS

The Ministry of Environment and Public Health has embarked on an intensive effort to introduce the usage of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Local Council administration since 1999. From a macro level, the development of ILAIS (Integrated Local Authority Information System) for the City Councils & Municipalities developed by Sarawak Information Systems Sdn. Bhd. (SAINS) and the adoption of a smaller and similar system known as SMART 2000 developed by PANSAR (Pan Sarawak) serves as a firststep towards achieving the status of E-Governance. As the Ministry attempts to keep abreast of the rapid change in technology especially in ICT, the Councils are expected to keep up with these changes. In order to do this all the various parties concerned, both at Ministry and Council level need to adopt a change mind shift from traditional methods to the new way of thinking and doing things. The introduction of IT in the workplace has also brought a different landscape in the Council work environment and it has also simplified bulky and complicated work procedures/processes.

URBAN & RURAL COUNCIL

How significant is the impact on the Local Councils, especially for those that are in the outlying districts of the State where the work culture differs from the much more modern Councils in the modern urban setup? The major Councils especially the Municipalities and Divisional Councils have to adapt ICT out of necessity in order to be at par with its private counterparts. The environment in which it operates is more challenging and requires it to be efficient due to the high expectation of urban dwellers with regards to the way a Council's daily operation of providing service to the rakyat. The use of ICT will further enhanced the efficiency and quality of its service. In contrast the Councils in the rural districts may discover that though the expectations by the public for a modernized administration is not that high, they still have to be proficient in using the latest technology by virtue of that the State Government has envisioned the creation of an electronic government by 2005. The importance and urgency of ICT in the State Administration is further strengthened by the creation of the Information Communication Technology Division in the State Secretary's Office on March 2001, with a unit specializing in e-government. In complimenting its creation the Ministry will work together with the ICT Division to draw up several ICT programs between 2001 and 2005 that will position the rural Councils to be at par with their urban counterparts with regards to ICT development. In due time, these rural Councils will be seen as leaders in ICT within their districts and will be utilized to spearhead ICT related projects for the local community.

HUMAN RESOURCES

In implementing these projects the Ministry has to focus on its most important basic unit that will play an important role in transforming the organization in the ICT transformation – its human resource. The sole responsibility at the end of the day in making E-Government function when the switch is turned on will be the people that make up the Council, from policy makers to executives down to its support staff. Therefore there is a need for the Council’s workforce to be continuously trained to provide them with the necessary skills and know-how of ICT. Among the programs that the Ministry has organized for the Councils is the Lotus SmartSuite training, which was initiated in 1999 until 2000 in response to the Sarawak State Government's decision to use Lotus SmartSuite as the standard application software platform for State Agencies in 1998. Currently this year the State Government will be shifting over to the Star Office 5.2 as its standard software for all government departments. This will result in the need to organize retraining for the Council human resource to familiarize them with the features in Star Office 5.2, which the Ministry intends to coordinate with Sun Microsystems. Bhd. These short-term changes of using different software for administration purposes reflect the volatility of this field of technology especially. This is also due to the competitive nature of the ICT industry and the changing policy in which software or system the government uses reflects the State Government's ability to respond to it.