WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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In order to maximize the social and economic potential of information and communication technologies, it is essential to act in the direction of interoperability, conclude the auditors of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM).
In this context, the CoARM presented today, November 17, within the Public Finance Control Committee (PFCC), the Performance Audit Report “How the measures taken to implement the interoperability framework contribute to ensuring the efficient exchange of data and interoperability between systems applied in the public sector?”.
The main conclusions and findings of the performance report were presented by Viorel Chetraru, Vice President of the CoARM and the auditors responsible for the audit.
The CoARM’s team informed the PFCC that the implementation of the interoperability framework will facilitate the efficient provision of public services, both traditionally and electronically, increasing the performance of the Government, due to an efficient data exchange within the public sector and between the sector. public and private. At the same time, the interoperability framework aims at a series of measures necessary to ensure interoperability, grouped on 4 levels, namely: legislative, technical, semantic and organizational.
The acquisition of the interoperability platform, including its developments, was carried out during 2014-2016 by the e-Government Agency within the e-Government Transformation Project, financed from the World Bank loan. The cost of implementing the Platform amounted to over 20 million lei, and for its maintenance, during the years 2018-2020, expenses amounting to over 4 million lei were made.
Generalizing the audit findings, it is attested that, on the whole, with some reservations of improvement, the necessary conditions were ensured in order to obtain the expected results related to the implementation of the Interoperability Framework, supported by: establishment, operation of the interoperability platform (MConnect), establishment of a framework normative related to its operation and use, of the responsible authorities, the use of the platform by some authorities, public and private institutions for ensuring the exchange of data, etc.
At the same time, the audit revealed that, although some tangible results were recorded, they did not fully result in the expected impact, a fact generated by the relatively low level of connection and use by public authorities and institutions of the interoperability platform, including ensuring the availability of data held in IS through it, the parallel use of the traditional way of exchange/access to data, failure to fully ensure the conditions for the protection of personal data.
Thus, among the most important shortcomings are:
- the issue of availability and exchange of data in the public sector was addressed in policy documents, normative acts, it was not fully resolved, some authorities still not ensuring the availability of managed/administered data;
- the establishment of the interoperability platform (MConnect) in 2014 and its long-term piloting until 2019 were achieved in the absence of the necessary regulatory framework, which conditioned its discretionary use;
- the shortcomings of the regulatory framework related to the organization, implementation and functioning of the MConnect platform, insufficient, inefficient activity of the bodies involved, including the lack of an efficient and adequate monitoring, coordination and control mechanism for the application of the Interoperability Framework, have limited the effectiveness platform;
- although the MConnect interoperability platform has been implemented, its implementation and management, especially of the Semantic Catalog component, do not fully ensure the achievement of the proposed goal;
- the sporadic and uncoordinated use and proper monitoring of the Interoperability Platform (MConnect) during the reference period by the public authorities and institutions to ensure the exchange of data limits its efficiency and effectiveness;
- inefficiency of the interoperability platform implemented by the Government, through the EGA, due to the parallel use by public authorities and institutions of the traditional (paper) mode, or of alternative data exchange mechanisms for collecting the data the appropriate sector.
In order to remedy the deficiencies, the Court of Accounts submitted to the responsible authorities’ recommendations aimed at improving the functioning and management of the government platform for the efficiency of the provision of public services.
During the hearings, was emphasized the importance of the audit topic, as well as the subsequent activities necessary to ensure the development and capitalization of the platform.
