2013-02-28
National Audit Office: reform of the management of the state information resources advances slowly
The state information resources include objects in more than 700 different categories which are related to important functions of public life. The National Audit Office has conducted an audit to assess the efficiency of the management of the state information resources and their exploitation potential. Auditor General Mrs Giedrė Švedienė commented on the audit results as follows: “The reform of this area enshrined in the 2012 Law on Management of State Information Resources has significantly improved the management of the state information resources; however, the expected advance has not yet taken place. The management of the information resources is still insufficiently effective and policy making in this field is inconsistent.”
Upon the entry into force of the said Law, the management structure of the state information resources has been changing by redistributing institutional responsibilities for the resource management areas. However, the absence of a single policy maker in this field complicates reconciliation of interests of institutions and results in insufficiently effective management of this field. Not all interdepartmental commissions are actually functioning, and no responsibility for certain management areas of the state information resources has been assigned. The restructuring of the management of the information resources lacked adequate preparedness to interconnect the management of the state information systems, registers and other information and communication technologies. Not all concepts of information resources, information and communication technologies are compatible and not all legislation implementing this Law has been drafted. In addition, uniform and harmonised requirements for the creation, safety and operation of various resources are needed. Fragmented policy making in this area affects the whole development of the state information resources – strategic development orientations of the information resources have not been harmonised, and the established assessment criteria fail to reveal all results of strategic development of the information resources.
The mechanisms developed by the state to control the implementation of the information resources policy also fail to operate as intended, there is no comprehensive and reliable information about the creation, management, development, protection of these resources and other processes. The exact amount of the state information resources and the status of the existing information infrastructure are not available, so attempts to introduce common tools of interaction have not been successful. Information resource managers find it difficult to harmonise and select the most appropriate security measures for electronic information and information technologies because the importance of 85 percent of the information resources is not clear due to the failure to establish links between the classification systems being used.
Annual state and European Union (EU) assistance funds allocated for investments in information technologies total to about LTL 200 million; however, the envisaged financial control procedures are insufficiently effective because not all projects are agreed with the Information Society Development Committee. Additional LTL 146 million per year are used to cover operating costs of the information resources, but the planning of the costs and assessment of their validity has not been controlled at the state level. Also, there is a lack of control of the use of EU and other international assistance funds: the validity of investments in information technologies amounting to LTL 384.89 million allocated over the period 2008-2011 was not assessed, and neither was the compatibility of the expected results with the information society development directions.
State institutions have accumulated a lot of various electronic information; however, the potential of automated inter-institutional data exchange and of the repeat use of information technology solutions available at institutions is not used. State institutions exploit over 60 percent of the potential of the information technology tools acquired thereby, but these tools are not encouraged to be used centrally.
With a view to providing for conditions necessary for the management of all state information resources, ensuring consistency of the policy on these resources, more rational use of funds allocated thereto, and better exploitation of their potential, the National Audit Office maderecommendations to the Government, Ministry of Transport, Information Society Development Committee, and to the Ministry of the Interior.