21.12.2010. -

The project “E-government Portfolio”, the implementation of which was ensured by the then Secretariat of Special Assignments Minister for Electronic Government Affairs (SSAMEGA), has not fully achieved its objective, the State Audit Office (SAO) has found in the audit.

The SAO has coordinated recommendations with the successor of the functions of the reorganised Secretariat, the Ministry of Regional Development and Local Government, in order to facilitate return from the funds invested in the project, including expansion of services to be digitised, linking the use of the system with the provision of specific functions or processes, and ensuring a more comprehensive use of the system’s functionality.

A total of LVL 3.3 million was invested in the project, but since the activities and objectives of the project were not linked to specific functions or processes, the results of the project do not permit an evaluation of whether or not the funds invested have been an economical solution for the implementation of the project.

As a result of the project, optimisation of the activities of State and local government institutions has not been improved. The SAO has calculated that a total of LVL 315,000 has been used inefficiently in the project implementation.

Even though the project had proposed to integrate information systems into a single State information system, two separate and mutually unconnected record management systems were developed, as well as a project management system that ensures partial recording of the progress of a single e-government and information technology process. LVL 122,000 has been administered inefficiently in the creation of the project management system.

It was found during the audit that an insufficient number of user licences for the record management systems had been acquired as part of the project. Accordingly, five of the 17 institutions have acquired additional licences worth LVL 45,000, whereas one institution has commenced implementing a new record management system due to the insufficient number of the licences. The SAO points out that LVL 42,000 was used inefficiently in purchasing licences for the record management system, as the project failed to evaluate the possibility of expanding the use of DAUKS, the system of electronic circulation of documents.

The SAO also established that the implementing party of the project has used LVL 138,000 on outsourcing the development of regulatory enactments and by-laws of structural units to an external service provider, although this was one of the functions of the institution. Moreover, documents were developed as part of the project that was not used in the period evaluated by the audit.

A total of 58% or LVL 1.9 million, of the total project funding has been used for activities for which no regulatory framework exists at the national level, such as the introduction of a project management system, the creation of infrastructure for e-services and the development of e-services.