2016-10-14
Public Auditors Assessed the Condition of IT Resource Management at the Ministry of the Interior
An audit carried out by the supreme audit institution showed that the management of the Ministry of the Interior should pay more attention to coordination and control of information technology (IT) management. The Ministry is responsible not only for the development and support of its IT systems – it also shapes the IT application policy in the fields of public administration (e-government) and the public information resource security. However, as the audit data show, the condition of IT resource management has not improved at the Ministry over the past nine years.
The Ministry of the Interior manages a total of 16 public information systems and registers, eight of which are of critical importance: they are used to manage criminal record data, to register the suspected and wanted persons, to store the data of criminal case files and to register foreign citizens arriving to the country, etc. According to the public auditors who performed the assessment of the condition of IT resource management, the collected audit evidence does not allow decisively stating that the Ministry manages to control sufficiently all the risks related to confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. The Ministry also fails to ensure uninterrupted provision of its IT services.
The auditors note that inadequate attention is paid to coordination and control of IT management at the Ministry level: a strategic IT plan is not being prepared, the organizational structure of IT management requires improvement, the monitoring and assessment process is inadequate. According to the auditors, the maturity of IT management processes remains at the level of the initial process (Ad Hoc) at the Ministry. In addition, 24 cases of non-compliance with the statutory requirements were found.
The supreme audit institution notes that the quality of the Ministry's IT management will also affect the activities of other state institutions: on 5 January 2016, the Information Technology and Communications Department under the Ministry of the Interior was appointed one of the four public IT service providers. Recommendations were issued to the Ministry. If implemented in a timely manner, these recommendations will help to eliminate the detected shortcomings of the IT management, which will contribute to the achievement of a higher IT management maturity level.
Additional information: Živilė Simonaitytė, Acting Director of the Information Technology Audit Department, tel. (8 5) 2666704, email: [email protected]
Justas Jaskonis, Public Relations Officer, tel. (8 5) 266 6794, email: [email protected]