Public enterprises moving beyond e-governance

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With the rise of smartphones, growth in data usage and mobile operators pledge to launch 4G services, the government’s enterprises are now gradually moving from e-governance to m-governance

By Mohd Ujaley

With the continued rise of smartphones, accelerated growth in data usage and mobile operators pledge to launch 4G services across major cities by December 2015, the government’s departments, corporations and PSUs are overhauling their traditional strategy of using technology for better governance. Now they are moving beyond e-governance and gradual adoption of mobile platform is becoming a priority task. Recently, the Bihar State Building Construction Corporations Limited (BSBCCL), a Government of Bihar enterprise that works in the area of constructing government’s buildings and their maintenance, in the line of central government’s National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC), has come up with a mobile monitoring system to ensure the transparency and accountability in the execution of the projects and its operations.

Basically, mobile monitoring system of BSBCCL is an Window based application that has been created with the help of Vodafone. The application provides current status of employee, project and helps in monitoring each and every scheme with respect to the fund allotment, work status, expenditure, contractor assignment and work details. In fact, leave request is now being managed with the help of this application. An employee can apply for leave and see the status of the request on the mobile app itself.

Over the years, the BSBCCL has been able to strengthen its IT infrastructure with the introduction of technology in its core operational strategy. Today, the corporation has a well established systems for e-monitoring, e-procurement, project management, financial accounting, e-leave management and security of the network and the devices. And, since last one year, efforts are being made to move the entire structure from e-mode to m-mode. “Our e-governance systems are in place, now the focus is to take it to the mobile platform and use it for the benefit of the people and the organisation,” Ganga Kumar, Managing Director, BSBCCL told EC.

It is important to note that the mandate of the BSBCCL is to construct big and prestigious building, their maintenance, administer townships and other constructions which state government may assign.  For example, it is presently building Kishanganj Agriculture University and in the past has successfully built some of the signature buildings of the state such as statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi Maidan, Adhiveshan Bhawan,  Ghulam Sarwar Memorial Hall, and Loknayak Jayaprakash Institute of Technology. It is essential for the state’s corporation like BSBCCL to set high standards for quality, timeliness and efficient delivery of the projects to succeed. In order to achieve these goal, the Corporation has taken various initiatives in the area of project management, financial management, and offered incentive schemes for employees but above all, the ICT implementation has been at the fore-front of its core strategy for efficient management of its operation and work. “We want to create a paperless environment that is why use of ICT has been at forefront. From e-monitoring to e-procurement, project management to e-leave management, all are being taken care by ICT” said Kumar.

Also, for ensuring smooth and corruption free tendering, the BSBCCL has automated the process of tendering with the help of e-tendering solution. Now, the contractors need not to come to or depend on BSBCCL office. Everything is on the website and same is being now provided on mobile. Also, in the area of project management, which is very critical for  the success of any project, BSBCCL’s Project Management Information System (PMIS) is embedded with GPS monitoring tool for monitoring and  updates on exact physical progress of the projects. The BSBCCL is also using G-FACTS system considered to be one of the best financial protocol and government accounting system for transparent, accurate and error free account management.

Interestingly,  BSBCCL is among the few of the state PSUs that are profitable and its success story has been hailed as major achievement of any state public sector corporation in the country. From a turnover of merely Rs 3 crore and project outlay of about Rs 100 crore in 2012, today it has touched Rs 4800 crore with the project outlay of about Rs 8000 crore. With these growth  BSBCCL is also conscious of its role as the constructor of ‘futuristic signature building’ of the state. “The buildings that we create have potential to define the overall architecture philosophy of the state, therefore being eco-friendly and green is at the centre of our operation. In all projects, we are making sure to use eco-friendly materials. Our impetus has been to use all green concepts which help in creating sustainable environment,” adds Kumar.

Currently, the  BSBCCL is working to set-up a new IT infrastructure in place for e-office implementation for paperless activity, e- library for saving and viewing files online, online examination form registration for jobs, and online HR management system. According to Kumar, in all these m-governance will be the key and more than anything else,  going forward BSBCCL would create a self-sustainable model for m-governance.

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