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 ... 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 ... model; rationality of the use of the State Budget funds when managing information resources; use of the possibilities of the state information resources to improve the performance of the public sector ... 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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Report to on the user-friendliness and user involvement in the development of e-government services in Denmark
The e-government user-friendliness requirements are divided into five overall categories: language, design and flow, data and functionality, and accessibility. 1) The objective of the study ... is to provide an assessment of the authorities’ efforts to ensure that e-government services are user-friendly. The report answers the following questions: - Have the authorities involved the users ... in the development of the e-government services? - Have the authorities conducted post-launch assessments of the user-friendliness of the e-government services, and do the contracts with the suppliers of the solutions ... ... User-friendliness of public services should be consistenty required and tested ... The Danish Rigsrevisionen is of the opinion that the user-friendliness of the services can be improved if the authorities meet all the requirements of the Danish Agency for Digitisation concerning ... the matter. The audit covered user-friendliness related problems in case of five systems, before and after the launch. The systems take-up was also considered, as well as communicating with citizens who ... are unable to use digital 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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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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Audit of the Government, Government-guaranteed and Municipal Debt Management Information Systems in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria
The main audit question studied during the audit was: Are the government, government-guaranteed (SDMS) and municipal debt management information systems (CMDR) at the Ministry of Finance effective ... ? The audit covered the period from 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2013 and investigated four major areas: IT system strategy and general management; IT security and controls against disasters; Operational controls ... and Documentation; Application Controls. ... ... Even effective and modern IT systems require improvements and updates to ensure their security and accountability ... For the management of the government, government-guaranteed and municipal debt the Ministry of Finance has established an advanced integrated information infrastructure. According to Bulgarian SAI ... the established system is effective and provides updated, complete and correct information. Nevertheless the audit report points out areas of security, application controls as well as documentation as the subjects ... that need further improvement and optimization.
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State funds spent on development, operation and using of data centres services
The aim of the audit was to scrutinise the management of funds spent on building and operating the national data centre (hereinafter “STC1 data centre”), including the expenditure of selected ... organisational units of the state on buying hosting, server-housing and other related services. The audited period was between 2010 and 2014; where relevant, the preceding period was also scrutinised. Audited ... entities: Ministry of the Interior (“MoI”); Ministry of Finance (“MoF”); STÁTNÍ TISKÁRNA CENIN, state firm (state banknote printing firm, hereinafter “STC” or “the state firm”). The audit was conducted ... ... Risks steming from uncoordinated strategy ... SAI of Czech Republic analysed consequences of failures in strategic IT management at the state level. Lack of coordination and implementation rules reduced practical role of the ministry whose task ... was to guard high quality standards for all crucial IT systems in the state administration. Next consecquences were (among others) risk of uneconomical results of large IT investment and risk of inefficient ... supply of services, as well as opposite results of workforce reduction.
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