Uganda official urges IT for record keeping

Faced with poor record keeping in Uganda's public services sector, the regulator of the procurement and disposal function of the government has said that all government offices must become automated if corruption is to be stamped out.

Many government offices are already equipped with the computer machinery and LANs (local area networks) necessary to make the transition.

Preliminary findings from audits and investigations by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority over the past three years indicate a general weakness in record keeping by central and local governments, said PPDA executive director Edgar Agaba. He noted that automation would make government records available off site for easier processing.

"If that is not possible, I think government needs to outsource this service," Agaba said at a press conference, presenting a paper entitled "Managing public procurement, who is responsible?"

"The business of keeping records in hard copy files should be a thing of the past," he added. "With the new technology that is available, I think every government office needs to automate, so that when we need this information, it can be made available in real time."

Office automation refers to the varied computer machinery and software used to digitally create, collect, store, manipulate and relay office information necessary for accomplishing basic tasks and goals. The backbone of office automation is a LAN, which allows users to transmit data, e-mail and even voice across the network.

Transparency International ranks Uganda as one of the most corruption-prone countries in the word, due in part to poor record keeping that allows government officials to steal or misappropriate tax payers' monies.