THE Ministry of Public Telecommunication (MOPT), in collaboration with the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), is closer to the achieving its vision of placing some 200 government services online.

According to NDMA Customer Relations Manager, Latoya Martin, all of the online services have been established and are now awaiting confirmation from the requisite agencies.

“As it is right now, all 200 have been developed but we are currently awaiting the individual agencies to validate,” Martin explained during the third round of the Tourism Recovery Action Committee (TRAC) stakeholder consultations hosted online on Thursday.

Over a year ago, Minister of Public Telecommunication, Cathy Hughes, had announced the government’s plan to make the 200 services available online as part of the ministry’s work to expand access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) countrywide.

Also commenting on the progress, was Hinterland, Poor and Remote Communities (HPRCs) and ICT Project Manager at the MOPT, Phillip Walcott, who said: “Under the project there is a consulting team from Norway that is working on this, doing the assessment on the various government agencies to determine their readiness; design; deliver and maintain the e-services and this is currently ongoing.”

The services would apply to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), The Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) and the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and others.

“Looking to the future, we’re also going to be starting our e-Government programme. E-Government [is] really how, as a government, we could start moving toward paperless solutions. So, firstly, we want to be able to put more government services online, which means that citizens will not have to go to an office and line up for three hours to transact business. Our vision is that a citizen will be able to do their passport applications totally online,” she had explained, adding:

“As a citizen, you could go to a hub and transact your business; apply for your TIN; apply for your passport; apply for your driver’s licence to the state, where instead of having to do two or three visits, you only have to go once to collect the licence or the passport.”

The government has plans to achieve this by the end of this year. The plan was also put in place with the intention of moving away from having persons, especially in outlying areas, having to physically visit the capital to conduct business.

The drive to put these services online is part of the wider governmental mandate to decentralise services. It also aligns the Ministry with the country’s Green State Development Strategy (GSDS). It is envisioned that all citizens, regardless of any differences in capabilities, ethnicity, age or otherwise, would be able to equitably access these services.