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New Indian express reports that Orissa Govt has started The Orissa Modernising Government Initiative (OMGI) . This will be utilising IT in a more effective way. The Whole project is funded by DFID. Excerpts:

The Orissa Modernising Government Initiative (OMGI) seeks to address these and much more effectively. A State Government initiative, the project is being funded by DFID and would be completed by December 2008. It envisages rationalisation of the role of the State Government to focus on the most critical goods and services and reach out to the poor in a way that benefits them from its policies.

Besides, it aims to enhance the effectiveness, transparency and accountability with which the government performs its role.

The contours of the project was presented to Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy by OMGI officials here on Wednesday. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it exploits the benefits of IT to speed up delivery of public services and make them more transparent.

It also empowers the common men and gives them enough scope to ventilate their grievances to mandarins. Reengineering of the tools and procedures of the government departments would be one of its prime concerns.

Government officials can equally benefit from it. They would have access to service book, keep track of their career growth, leave sanction, transfer and posting. Each staff right down the ladder would be provided with a password.

Dissemination of government rule and procedure, citizen charter and performance data would be in vogue. Disclosure of information in a transparent manner to public on various procurements, allocations and awarding of tender would also be a reality.

Even candidates can review job posting, apply online and have access to employment news, views and service rules.

The reform measures would not be confined to the Secretariat alone. Revamping of the administration at the district-level would also be taken up. Human resource management would form a key component of the programme. Further, OMGI would intervene in other sectors like housing and urban development, health, education, industries and take up district modernisation and litigation management among others.

New Indian Express reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

The Department for International Development (DFID) of UK has agreed in principle to provide Rs 228.6 crore (30.487 million pounds) to the Orissa Government for the public enterprises reform programme.

Out of this, 29.8 million pounds would be provided to the State Government in the form of financial assistance and 0.687 million pounds would be given under technical cooperation grant.
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The budget provision under the State plan is meant for redundancy payment to the employees of the public sector undertakings (PSUs), 80 per cent of which is reimbursed by the DFID.

Since the start of the Orissa Public Enterprises Reform Programme (OPERP), the State Government has reimbursed Rs 240 crore from the closure of 11 enterprises and more than 32,000 workers have availed of VRS during the period. The State Government has set a target of restructuring four units and privatisation of two PSUs during the next financial year.

The units to be restructured are Orissa State Seeds Corporation, Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation and Orissa Forest Development Corporation. Besides, the OSCARD bank, Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Orissa, Orissa Bridge and Construction Corporation, Orissa State Cashew Development Corporation, Orissa State Housing Board and Orissa Agro Industries Corporation will be restructured in later phases.

Independent studies are also being conducted to assess the post-reform outcome for Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation, Orissa State Finance Corporation and Orissa Construction Corporation.