The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Dr. Isa Pantami has warned that all MDAs that fail to comply with the federal government guidelines on IT procurement shall face criminal prosecution amidst other sanctions.
Pantami issued the warning while addressing a gathering at the “March 2019 Lunch Time Reform’’ seminar by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms in Abuja. He reiterated the present administration’s fierce resolve to ensure transparency and accountability in public sector IT procurement which has yielded positively as over N24.7 billion is saved monthly through the deployment of IT and strict adherence to IT guidelines.
The Director-General also stated that the extant laws under which the NITDA operates and directives from the Presidency including executive orders mandate NITDA to ensure compliance by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government to IT clearance guidelines. Defaulters risk heavy punishment including criminal prosecution of the offending government officials by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Pantami, the government is resolute on enforcing the laws on IT compliance and NITDA will not rest on its oars to achieve this. In his words, “Under E-Governance today, so many leakages in government institutions have been blocked by IT (Information Technology) and that has integrated even the revenue of our country.
“With the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and BVN, the Federal Government of Nigeria has been saving a minimum of N24.7billion monthly, just because of the implementation of this IT software.”
Pantami also seized the opportunity to laud the agencies that have achieved significant automation while also stressing that a lot of processes still require fuller integration of IT in the public sector particularly in some MDAs where automation could help to deliver services to the public at more transparent and faster levels.
He also stated clearly that NITDA will continue to help agencies lagging behind to rapidly integrate IT into their operations because such institutions with digital skills among staff, and IT penetration in their processes risk becoming extinct by 2020 within government’s scheme of things.
Pantami also revealed that his agency was doing all within its power to ensure capacity building and synergy among MDAs.
