23 September, 2009 - The audit clearance procedure for civil servants will be the next government process to be offered as an e-service shortly. Audit clearances are required before civil servants can apply for promotion, training and further studies.
Currently, the manual procedure involves applicants filling in a form and mailing it to the royal audit authority (RAA) head office in Thimphu.
After the form arrives in Thimphu, it is processed and, if no financial or other kinds of irregularity are found, mailed back within two days. This is exactly the kind of manual system the government aims to replace with systems that are faster and more efficient.
“It takes too much time, especially when it involves applications from other dzongkhags,” said an RAA official involved in the project, Dorji Tenzin. Other disadvantages, apart from the time taken during transportation, involve the chances of either applicant forms or clearance certificates being damaged or lost in transit.
But one major inconvenience that will be eliminated by e-service is the travel of civil servants from other dzongkhags all the way to Thimphu for the clearance procedure. Dorji Tenzin said many civil servants working in other dzongkhags chose to personally come to Thimphu to submit their forms. Civil servants are also required sometimes to be present when irregularities are pending. “This will mean less government expenditure or financial wastage for TA/DA,” said Dorji Tenzin, referring to travel and daily allowance.
The new system, to be installed on a trial basis for a month at the communications ministry in October, will allow civil servants to submit their audit forms online and receive their clearance certificates directly. If irregularities are found, they will also be informed online with the details. Tracking the process of the procedure will also be enabled. “Administrative burden will be reduced significantly,” said Dorji Tenzin.
After the trial basis, RAA and the department of information technology (DIT), which designed the system, will include one more ministry for testing, after which nationwide implementation will take place early next year.
“Basically, by automating the process, we speed up the system,” said a senior ICT officer, Jigme Tenzin.
The transferring of the audit clearance process online is the second system that will use the recently launched e-platform after the forest clearance system.
The government plans to provide 75 percent of all government public service online by 2011.
By Gyalsten K Dorji
