Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 13: Pulling up the government for its failure to implement e-Governance projects in three state universities, the objectives of Higher Education sector remained defeated, the CAG has said.
“Due to non-utilisation of hardware and software service facilities during the warranty period, non-handling over of software prototypes by firms for customisation, non-involvement of technically competent personnel in evaluation and testing process, the objective of introducing e-governance projects largely remained unachieved,” the CAG pointed out in its report on General and Social Sector.
Utkal University (UU), Berhampur University (BU) and Sambalpur University (SU) have implemented the e-governance project at a cost of Rs 7.35 crore through four service providers in 2007-08 fiscal. The objective was to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability at all government levels.
While, UU implemented the project at an estimated cost of Rs 1.8crore, BU implemented it at Rs 2.33crore and SU at Rs 3.40crore. While, UU met its expenditure out of its savings under Self-Financing Courses, both BU and SU met the expenditure from the 12th Finance Commission Grants released by the state government. However, the audit found half of the money spent rendered wasteful.
The CAG criticised the the department for lack of adequate training to end-users, non-assessment of need-based man-power and shortage of human resources in the e-governance projects.
