SHILLONG, May 27: It is a matter of pride for the state that the Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture Implementation project has won the coveted World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2022 as one of the five champion projects and the award ceremony is scheduled on May 31 at Geneva.
Information on this project as can be seen from the WSIS website reveals that Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA) is aimed towards enabling digital service delivery from government to citizens, businesses and employees by adopting whole-of-government approach.
This is first of its kind project based on the India’s National Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) framework. Based on the vision of the state, services of 19 departments were assessed and direct linkage with Sustainable Development Goals was derived. The Finance department was chosen as the pilot department. In Finance, an approval process of scheme to its final disbursement involved lot of paper trails, inefficient administration and disparate systems.
In this pilot, 46 departments and 64 directorates were onboarded which led to an efficiency gain of seven times. The start date of the project was August 2019 and the end date was September 2021.
This achievement is laudable and the officials who managed to achieve this deserve to be congratulated. But as is often the case, once a project wins a prestigious award, many including those hardly or remotely connected make a beeline to take credit. Such is the situation with the official delegation of Meghalaya that is visiting Geneva to receive the prize wherein people who were completely uninterested or not connected with the project have been included by virtue of the office they hold.
The delegation comprises Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, Chief Secretary Rebecca Suchiang, Commissioner and Secretary of Planning Dr Vijay Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary of Personnel department Ripnar Lyngdoh, Secretary of Planning department Robert Lyngdoh, Research Officer Danny Shabong and two consultants Prasad Unnikrishnan and Titash Maitra.
It is reliably learnt that the CM took personal interest in the project and Dr Vijay Kumar and the two consultants worked diligently. A surprising omission from this list, however, is the actual initiator and key driver of the project, former chief secretary MS Rao, on the flimsy plea that the officer has retired and this sentiment is shared by several officers this reporter interacted with.
In June 2019, Meghalaya managed to get hold of a prestigious project from the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The initial grant of Rs 5 crore was approved for the project titled “Meghalaya Statewide Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA)” for blueprint preparation and pilot implementation. The idea behind this project is reflected in the WSIS website prize winning entry. It is essentially about breaking of sectoral barriers and silos and re-architecting the government as a single enterprise.
Rao was president and CEO of NeGD. As is the common practice, IAS officers of the state who are appointed to key departments of Government of India do go out of their way to get projects they believe would benefit the state.
There are several instances of retired officers going on foreign tours or attending international events abroad. The Chairman of TRAI is scheduled to address the WSIS Forum 2022 as can be seen from the agenda. The CEO of NITI Aayog also regularly attends international events abroad. The Chairman of the Meghalaya Electricity Commission has gone on foreign tours on public money. In fact, the state even sends non-official delegations abroad.
Rao holds a statutory post under the Meghalaya government; hence there should have been no reason to deny him this benefit. In fact, it would have been befitting for the state to have included him in the delegation. It appears that there has been a deliberate and malicious attempt on the part of some bureaucrats of the state to deny him the credit and recognition that is rightfully due to him.
When asked for his reactions, Rao was initially non-committal, but on pressing further he said “Yes, it is a fact that I initiated the project as President & CEO of NeGD and subsequently supervised it as Chief Secretary till its launch in September 2021. I was told that the CM wanted me to be part of the official delegation and I gave my consent but I did not receive the state government clearance.”
On the composition of the official delegation, he said it is the prerogative of the government and he has nothing to comment.
Chief Secretary Rebecca Suchiang did not respond to the WhatsApp messages.
When asked, Dr Vijay Kumar questioned how retired officers can be included in the entourage.
“It is simple logic. Only serving officers from the department are deputed to attend the award ceremony. How can someone claim that he knows better than others?” Kumar questioned.
Kumar said that this project is being implemented by the Planning department, so he is going as the head of the department. The CM is going as the minister in-charge of Planning while the chief secretary is going as the head of the bureaucracy.
Kumar was however silent on the inclusion of consultants and junior officials on the entourage.
