A centralised ICT Team - do we need it, and how should it work ?

[Samiuela Loni Vea Taufa]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please find attached a paper that was recently written by an Australian Volunteer while he worked with the Ministry of Labour Commerce and Industry.

I will not prejudge your receipt of document, but it brings some interesting points that I would like us to review - the concept of a centralised ICT Team for Government. This is not a new proposal, but it gives us a good framework to continue dialogue.

Michael Henry's paper discusses two areas relevant to ICT and the Tongan Government.

   * IT Governance
   * IT Service Delivery

IT Governance

The paper covers the Governance of IT use within Government.

For us, we would need to consider how an uber group of geeks would/could be governed with the goals of ....

The most common structures which we are familiar, is the hierarchical systems we now have in government. In this environment, the question is asked whether a centralised administration of IT staff will be a better solution for Government (leaders, users, citizens.)

Of course, if you know more about how organisational structures, business processes can be aligned, then please feel free to educate us on the better alternatives.

IT Service Delivery

The IT Service deliveries promoted by the paper are:

* Project Managers
* Security Experts
* Administrators (System, Database, Network)
* Software Developers
* Help Desk

The attached paper is clear on the above points, if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Another classification of the roles of the IT central team splits it in the above terminology as:

* Administrators
* Software Developers
* Help Desk
* Training

Shared Service or Out Sourced

The paper mentions a US Document, who's relevant Tongan Document is found in the Strategic Development Plan-8:

Government    should    not    be    involved    in    running    −    often unprofitable  −  businesses  in  areas  where  private  business  could operate, provided that competition or regulation ensured consumer interests were protected 

Government  should  explore  the  option  of  subsidising  the  private sector  to  meet  community  service  obligations  such  as  providing transport   to   the   Niuas,   rather   than   running   a   public   sector operation,

Please put on your thinking caps, and have a nice week-end.

-- 
Samiuela LV Taufa
sa...@nomoa.com -or- samt...@gmail.com
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