Buildout of ICT Boosting Public-Sector Efficiency

Efficiency in the public sector is being enhanced through the buildout of broadband infrastructure and upgrading of the eGov Data Centre.

Finance Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, made the declaration as he addressed the recent Caribbean Public Sector Financial Management Conference in Kingston, where he gave an update on gains made under the Public Sector Transformation Programme.

He noted that information and communications technology (ICT) is a critical pillar in the modernisation of the public sector.

“Under the Public Sector Transformation Programme, we now have a dedicated broadband infrastructure that connects over 200 government offices in the greater Kingston Metropolitan area and over 500 more outside of Kingston, which includes schools and police stations and other government establishments,” Minister Clarke said.

“Now, having a dedicated broadband infrastructure that directly connects government entities and offices opens up a plethora of new possibilities for getting things done… faster and quicker and with less resources than it would have taken in the past,” he pointed out.

Dr. Clarke said that under the ICT component of transformation, Government was also able to make substantial investment in the eGov Data Centre.

In March, the Minister announced that upgrades were completed to the centre at a cost of $600 million.

“We have a splintering of data centres around, as the needs of various entities in public service require them to have infrastructure that service their data needs. But that prevented us from achieving economies of scale in security, architecture and in performance,” he pointed out.

“Under the Public Sector Transformation Programme, we are able to massively scale up the storage capacity of the existing data centre and to massively enlarge the cloud infrastructure available to it ,” he indicated.

With the upgrades in the capacity of the facility to deliver, there is now the possibility of consolidating existing data centres across the public service into the eGov Data Centre.

“This will, as I said, provide economies of scale as we seek to ensure that the service from the data centre is at the best international standards as far as security is concerned, as far as cyberthreats are concerned and other service standards,” Dr. Clarke said.