Capacity Building

Capacity Building and Institutional Framework under NeGP

Based on specific capacity gaps identified above, capacity building and institutional framework is being suggested to address these gaps. If a State Government already has a framework in place which performs similar roles as indicated below, the same can be retained, with or without alteration, taking the cue from these guidelines.

Apex Level

A Program Steering Council should be set up ideally under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister in the State to provide overall vision, broad policy direction and guidance to the State e- Governance Program - SeGP (i.e. state specific project areas under NeGP)

To achieve the policy goals and objectives as determined by the Program Steering Council, a high level committee – SeGP Apex Committee is expected to be set up to provide strategy direction and oversee the State e-Governance program & ensure inter - departmental coordination (on the lines of National Apex Committee for NeGP constituted under Cabinet Secretary at the Centre, Apex Committee for NeGP).

A suggested composition is as follows:

A State e-Governance Mission Team (SeMT) needs to be formed to support the Program Steering Council & SeGP Apex Committee and function as the secretariat and full time internal advisory body in undertaking e-Governance projects. This team would be responsible for undertaking the groundwork for providing for an overall direction, standardisation and consistency through program management of the e-Governance initiatives in the State. All interdependencies, overlaps, conflicts, standards, overarching architecture, security, legal aspects,etc. across projects as well as core and support infrastructure shared across several projects would fall under the purview of this group. However only the SeGP Apex Committee would have the power to issue directions to any department.

Given the current structure and skill-sets available, capacity building is required to form SeMT with adequate number of personnel with the requisite skill-sets. Capacity Building at State

Level (SeMT) would inter alia strengthen the secretariat of the SeGP Apex Committee under the Secretary (IT) or any other secretary nominated by the state government, who may currently be supported by a skeletal staff and / or the state unit of NIC. The approach to actual capacity building is detailed out later in these guidelines.

It is expected that the SeMT would typically consist of 5-10 core people initially. The actual size would depend on the scale and maturity of the e-Governance programme in the State. For states that have a suitable programme already under way, the SeMT would be significantly larger.

SeMT is expected to engage agencies on task basis, wherever feasible and appropriate , rather than undertaking tasks itself. It is important to ensure that the SeMT does not itself undertake tasks that could have been out source to professional agencies, so that the State gets the benefit of the best advice on various issues.

Project Level

Various departments of the State Government taking up e-Governance projects would require a full time dedicated Project e-Governance Mission Team (PeMT). This team would function as the secretariat reporting to the project leader. This team would oversee project execution and would manage implementation and deal with technology, process & change management related issues. This team would also manage outsourcing tasks like :

1. Preparation of the Project Proposals Guidelines for Capacity Building and Institutional Framework for e -Governance under NeGP March, 2005-6
2. Consulting Assignments for Business Process Re-engineering, Change management, Financial Modelling, System Design & Architecture etc.
3. Project Management / Monitoring etc.
4. Training
5. Procurement of Hardware, Software, Networking etc.
6. Data entry

As several of these tasks would be undertaken by various projects running in the state, it would be helpful to take advice and support from SeMT time-to-time.

The approach for formation and skill-sets required for PeMT would be on similar lines as mentioned for SeMT. It is expected that the PeMT would typically consist of 4-8 core people and have a wellbalanced  mix of domain expertise (serving/retired officials of the department having detailed knowledge about the department and its processes and functions) and technical expertise (i.e. technology, process re-engineering, change management, project management). PeMT is envisaged to be formed as early as possible, the earlier the better. Till such time, the department may take necessary support from SeMT for handling early stages of project i.e. project proposal formulation and early stage of bid process.