Arscott banks on AMANDA to improve local gov't efficiency
Published:Wednesday | July 10, 2013 | 12:00 AM
With the country receiving a less-than-favourable ranking in the last annual Doing Business report, the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development has embarked on a drive to improve the country's ranking and encourage greater investments.
The ministry said it hopes to achieve this with the help of the Applications Management and Data Automation (AMANDA) system, which is to be introduced in all parish council offices across the island in the short term.
The system will be utilised to fast-track applications for licences, permits, and other approvals that are done through the various parish council offices across the island.
Through its workflow automation system, AMANDA sets out the list of tasks to be completed, the names of the persons responsible for performing each task, and the timeline.
"Once a task has been completed and is indicated in the database, AMANDA prompts the person responsible for performing the next task in the process," Local Government Minister Noel Arscott explained to participants at a ceremony to mark the start of the AMANDA training session yesterday.
"In addition, it will allow for paper trails, reduce inconsistencies, and bring to a halt the bottleneck in task assignment and processes, and in that, it will provide greater compliance from developers as well as professionals," Arscott added.
TRAINING WORKSHOP
The training workshop for the use of the software will run until August 27. Training will be done in phases across the different regions.
During the sessions, 30 information technology developers and 10 end users in the various parish councils will be trained to use the software, according to Steve Anderson, who is the acting director of information technology in the Computer Technology Unit within the ministry.
The ceremony to mark the start of the workshop was held at the ministry's St Andrew office.
So far, the Clarendon Parish Council is the only local authority that has been utilising the software system.
The AMANDA system has developed a track record to reduce the turnaround period on delivery of public services in countries such as Canada, where it was developed.