Gov't to save on phone calls

THE GOVERNMENT is planning to roll out an ambitious information communication platform aimed at significantly reducing the amount of money the State now pays for telephone calls.

Daryl Vaz, the minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister who has responsibility for information, told Parliament yesterday that the move will save the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Currently, the telephone bills for Government are approximately $2 billion per year. Sixty per cent of the Government's telephony costs are made to itself," Vaz said.

Danville Walker, the chairman of the Central Information Tech-nology Office board, which has been charged with the imple-mentation, told The Gleaner last night that he hoped the ICT platform would be gradually installed.

Walker also said that when fully implemented, it could save taxpayers up to 60 per cent of current telephone cost.

Walker revealed that it might not cost the Government any money to implement the programme, as telecommunication providers may view it as an opportunity.

"In the competitive environment that we are in now, you may find that they are those prepared to pay us," Walker told The Gleaner.

Yesterday, Vaz, who was making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate, said the ICT platform, called GovNet and a Voice over Internet protocol, would redound to the benefit of taxpayers.

"Travelling from Kingston to Montego Bay for a one-hour meeting is not the most efficient use of the Government's time. GovNet will allow for increased use of video conferencing to maximise resources and reduce Government's carbon footprint," Vaz said.

However, the Government has not said when the programmes would be rolled out but Walker says the "main goal will be to have the implementation of it begin before the end of the financial year".

He said that some aspects of the programme would have to be piloted before a full roll-out.

"This is not like buying Windows (operating system) and loading it on to a computer. This is a combination of infrastructure, hardware and software and therefore it has to be carefully planned and rolled out in stages," Walker said.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com