Information Technology Cost Estimation Agencies Need to Address Significant Weakness in Policies and Practices
and agencies have appropriately implement costestimating policies an procedures(four caracteristics of a reliable cost estimation: comprehensive, well-documented, accurate, credible). ... To estimate reliable cost for the sucess of an IT program by providing the basis for the informed decision making and realistic budget information. To assess the extent to which selected departments ... IT cost estimation ... Check out what may go wrong with the information technology cost estimation. Results of the US GAO audit can help to identify high risk areas: comprehensiveness of estimations, their documentation ... , lack of adequacy and inadequate implementation.
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Management of State Information Resources
. Audit procedures were performed in all major institutions which form and implement the policy of information resources: Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry ... was conducted on the assumption that the audited and other entities provided comprehensive and objective information and copies of the documents correspond to the originals. ... The objective of the audit was to assess effectiveness of the management of the state information resources and of the use of their possibilities: suitability of the chosen state resources management ... Well targeted requirements, interconnected information resources and broad use - why so difficult to be gained? ... The leading idea of the 'Approach to Management of State Information Resources' programme was to entrench a comprehensive management of data resources. After five years preparations, the desired ... momentum was still not the case. SAI Lithuania analysed roots of the problems: concept, poor use of funds, lack of interconnections, unsatified users.
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Is the project 'E-health in Latvia' a step towards the right direction?
of funds invested in the project for achievement of set objectives and gaining the planned benefits. Audit covered such main questions: 1) Will the e-health policy be able to solve problems and achieve ... Objective of the audit was to verify efficiency and productivity of the actions by the institutions in charge for implementation of the e-health, as well as to audit economy and productivity of use ... the objective? 2) Are the actual activities performed by the National Health Service justified for achievement of the set objectives? 3) Will necessary information security and personal data protection be ensured ... E-health is a step forward in right direction, but not all objectives will be reached! ... a step towards the right direction then. However, as found the Latvian SAI, the e-health policy will not be implemented within the initially planned scope and deadline and within set data security levels ... , thus the objective of this policy – to promote more effective provision of healthcare services will be attained only partially. ... Project “E-health in Latvia” supports healthy lifestyle, it will provide valuable and accessible information and will promote more efficient provision of services to patients. It is undoubtedly
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Quality of public services in information society in 2010
. Information about the services is still difficult to find on websites and people who use public services must still submit unjustified documents, proof of facts or go to administrative agencies in person ... The National Audit Office found that irrespective of a few positive changes, the quality of provision of public services in information society has not improved significantly in comparison to 2007 ... . A positive example is registration of a person’s place of residence, which has become considerably easier and user-friendlier than in 2007 as a result of the development of the state portal. <br/> 2007 Audit ... ... The quality of public services has been improved but still isn’t good enough ... is still difficult to find on websites and people who use public services must still submit unjustified documents, proof of facts or go to administrative agencies in person. ... Irrespective of a few positive changes, the quality of provision of public services in information society has not improved significantly in comparison to 2007. Information about the services
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Digitisation of municipal services
, assessed the significance of and possible obstacles to digitisation of municipal services. The audit examined how the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation's use of policy instruments contributes ... The purpose of digitisation is to increase the quality and efficiency of public services. It is a goal to make online services the norm for public administration's communication with citizens ... and the private sector. The municipal sector is a significant provider of public services, and digitisation of municipal services is therefore essential for achieving this goal.<br/>The audit surveyed the status ... ... Municipalities have not digitised their services to any extent ... Digitisation increases the quality and efficiency of public services and municipal sector is a significant provider of public services. Report of Riksrevisjonen of Norway shows however ... , that municipalities need a substantial support to execute this demanding task. To provide them with help, the central government has to coordinate own efforts first.
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Coordination of Infrastructure Works by Metropolitan Municipalities
of Interior, as administrative trusteeship, improves policies and legal arrangements relating to coordination of infrastructure works to bring in necessary measures with a view to leveraging effectiveness ... Rapid population growth at metropoles as well as dense and planless structuring, especially in İstanbul and Ankara, have lead to an increase in demand for utilities services and consequently ... , in the resources used for the construction and maintenance of utilities. Moreover, in cities with dense population, damages to roads and sidewalks during the construction and maintenance of utilities cause problems ... ... ... Start geographic information system with cooperation rules and digital maps ... Organization of geographic and infrastructure information systems is an especially difficult task when bacause vast and intense coordination is necessary. The Turkisch Court of Accounts lists ... problems that reduce use and rise costs of this fundamental task.
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Data security and positions with access to confidential information
This government wide audit on information security and positions with access to confidential information has been performed at all ministries ans for each ministry also at one of the agencies ... . The 2007 Civil Service Data Information Security Decree (in Dutch: VIR 2007) is the legal foundation of the first part of this audit (data security). The Security Screening Act (in Dutch: WVO ... ) is the foundation of the second part (positions with access to confidential information). Only four of the organizations we have audited show an acceptible level of compliance with the 2007 Civil Service Data ... ... Shortcomings in information security and in positions with access to confidential information ... protection policy and poor protection of information systems. Also, non vetted positions with access to confidential information. ... Surprising weaknesses were revealed by the NCA in its Government-wide operational audit performed as part of the 2011 audit into the state of central government accounts: Poor quality of data
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VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE - Preliminary Observations on VHA’s Claims Processing Delays and Efforts to Improve the Timeliness of Payments to Community Providers
in geographic location, performance, and workload); reviewed VHA documents and 156 claims from those 4 locations; and interviewed officials from VHA, Medicare, TRICARE, and selected community providers and state ... Due to increases in expenditures and utilization of VA care in the community services in recent years, VHA has had difficulty processing claims in a timely manner. In planning to consolidate its ... existing VA care in the community programs, as required by law, the agency said it will examine strategies for improving the timeliness and accuracy of its payments to community providers.<br ... Data processing hold back by technology limitation, workload and administrative burden ... US GAO analyzed all factors of slower processing and user unfriendliness that occur sometimes to the veterans healthcare. The main focus is data processing - and it has been proved that it can ... be failing not only because of technology, but also because of work-process design, staff and organisation.
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Management and implementation of 1BestariNet
and documents related to 1BestariNet project, data analysis, physical check on the 1BestariNet network, walk through system, visit to the 1BestariNet Data Centre located at the vendor’s premise, interviews ... 1BestariNet Service Project (1BestariNet) is an initiative undertaken by the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) to replace and enhance ICT connectivity in schools. It is an enhancement ... to the SchoolNet service which terminated on 31 December 2010 with emphasis on end-to-end solutions (E2E) network services together with Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Under this project, 10,000 primary ... ... To answer big risks in IT systems development you need all levels of organisation ... Audit of 1BestariNet is presented by the Malaysian National Audit Department together with other IT projects reviewed. A result is this concise and instructive list of lessons learnt and failures ... to be avoided. To maximize performance and minimize vendor lock-in you need a lot of concerted effort by top and line management, as well as users ready to work with new tools.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania has managed 32 information systems and registers. Of these, 24 ones are managed, developed and upgraded by a state enterprise subordinate ... to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Information and Rural Business Centre. The annual amount allocated by the Ministry for the maintenance of the Centre totals LTL 17.5 million on average ... . The objective of the audit was to assess the general and development controls of the information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture. The audit was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture and the state ... ... Without appropiate IT management  it is hard to achieve reliable, consistent and secure systems for agriculture ... Since 1996 the Ministry has been using information systems of varying complexity for collecting and processing data, including personal data. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania ... has managed 32 information systems and registers. SAI of Lithuania revealed that systems were not well mantained what affected use of funds devoted to the systemsand also their legality and security.
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