New e-service to ease access to government documents |26 May 2015

An e-service aimed at promoting access to government information was officially launched last week as part of activities to mark ICT week.

It was Vice-President Danny Faure, in his capacity as minister responsible for information communications technology (ICT) who officially launched the repository e-service of the online government document repository at National House.

The launch took place in the presence of the principal secretary in the department of ICT Benjamin Choppy; the chief secretary for Cabinet Affairs and head of public services in the Department of Public Administration Jessie Esparon;  the secretary of state for Cabinet Affairs and Civil Service Mohammed Afif and officials and staff of the department of ICT.

Elaborating on the new e-service, Mr Choppy said it is an online repository for government documents that are in the public domain.
“The facility developed allows government ministries and agencies to upload e-documents that they consider to be in the public domain. And they have to upload it to the online document repository,” explained PS Choppy.

He said to do this the designated person or persons in the organisation are provided with the necessary level of access. During the process of posting the documents to that e-service, meta deta tags are also set for each of the documents. This allows for their categorisation and also makes them easier to search for.

Once uploaded the document is available for any member of the public to search and see. Whether in Seychelles or overseas, they can also download these documents.

“The concept of this e-service is for it to become a single window whereby anyone wishing to have access to any government document in the public domain can do so easily and search for them, rather than having to navigate through the processes of the various organisations to get them.

Mr Afif said the e-service concept will complement information which is already being provided elsewhere by organisations for example on individual websites. It will benefit members of the public, students, researchers and public sector organisations.

The repository e-service was approved by the cabinet in 2013 as one direct response to President Michel’s repeated calls for improvement in government’s efficiency and service delivery.
The service has great potential for such an improvement. For example the regulatory framework needed for a government service can be accessed without the need for a personal call or a visit to the department concerned.