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G. Srinivasan

The Kerala Government is tapping IT to give its PWD functioning a new image. It's game for a jumbo effort.

SAY PWD and the picture that flashes to mind isn't likely to be a very flattering one. It makes one think of huge projects and huger delays. And there's some measure of truth in the imagination. Public Works Departments (PWDs), which execute mammoth projects with massive resources, are invariably inept as their functioning is not transparent, particularly when their job entails interacting with droves of contractors of diverse hues.

While the picture's true of almost all the States in the country, there are a few exceptions. And Kerala's gunning for that slot, going by its use of IT in the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP).

The project is being undertaken to improve traffic flow and road safety on the State's primary road network and to strengthen the institutional and financial capacity of the State's key transport sector agencies.

The State Government has secured a World Bank loan of $225 million to the overall project cost of $360 million. A group of journalists visiting the project site in Kochi recently found that the KSTP is the launching pad for an initiative in institution-strengthening. The objective is to render the PWD a performance-driven, transparent, efficient and customer-facing organisation.

The role of IT

Explaining an Integrated Financial and Management Information System (FMIS) which will encompass all the functions and offices of the PWD, the President, Venture Management Associates, G. Vijaya Raghavan, says an IT cell has been set up comprising hand-picked officers of the PWD to implement and oversee the process of IT-enabling PWD. The PWD is well aware that one of the major hurdles towards effective and transparent service delivery is the inability of the system to make available the right information to the right decision-makers, at the right time. This is addressed through the Project Financial Management System (PFMS), the Geographic Information System (GIS), the Video Conferencing System (VCS), an Integrated Portal and the PWD-wide intranet.

For instance, the PFMS has been designed as per World Bank guidelines and comprises all the project-related activities. This includes pre-mobilisation and post-mobilisation functions related to a package of works, contract management, payments, bill preparation, financial management, report generation, tree auction, resettlement and rehabilitation.

The integrated portal will be the front-end of the PWD-wide FMIS, the official says. This will handle the internal communication and the external information processes identified by the institutional strengthening action plan (ISAP) as areas for efficiency gains. The portal will have a secure intranet and extranet and a public interface.

The intranet functions include asset management, project monitoring, knowledge management and online training. It is used as a vehicle for e-learning and skill development within the department.

The major functions of the extranet include inter-agency coordination of works, road cutting and restoration protocol, interfacing with vendors and contractors, securedtendering, work scheduling and progress monitoring, according to T.K. Thomas, Superintendening Engineer, Kerala PWD.

The Public Interface will enable people to access information services, submit applications, complaints, and suggestions. It will give them access to information about the schedule, progress, outlay and other details concerning specific projects. Besides, higher efficiency is proposed to be achieved through re-engineering the business process at PWD. This will entail streamlining the procedures, avoidance of duplication of efforts and multiple data entry, removing monotony through need-based automation and online access to services. To back up these initiatives, an IT training programme touching every employee in the department has been launched. Training of 1200 engineers has begun across the State. The training is being given on a cost-sharing basis, with the beneficiary bearing 75 per cent of the costs.

At the end of the day, over the next two years i.e., 2003-05, the FMIS will get transformed into a system that provides timely, precise and complete information of all the activities being undertaken by the department. The net result, as the officials explain, is a positive impact on the various internal processes, from planning, budgeting and scheduling to timely execution and payment.

Moreover, the system will give accurate information about the physical and financial performance of the department, making target-setting and budgetary control meaningful and beneficial. The contractors, key players in road development, will surely breathe easy (with payments on schedule) and more predictable than it has ever been even as their dealings with the department will be online and transparent not only to the shareholders but also to the stakeholders.

This will infuse a sense of seriousness and purpose into the system while deterring corruption. Other States might hopefully replicate the Kerala experiment so that the negative image attached to the department is erased by degree.

geeyes@thehindu.co.in

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