ICT Governance in Parliaments

The management of information/document is at the base of any parliamentary activities and  ICT  is undoubtedly the most powerful tool that we have currently have to manage parliamentary information/documents. Despite this in many parliaments ICTs and management of information and documents has not yet been given the required shared of resources and it has not yet become one of the core services of parliaments.

Parliaments need to adopt adequate governance models to handle what should be one of the most critical support services of a parliaments. Parliaments need to institutionalize information and knowledge management and make sure that enough resources are allocated to address the parliament’s strategic information management and technology priorities.

In this context possible areas on which to focus are:

• Establishment of dedicated ICT Steering Committees to drive and support modernization efforts in parliaments.
  Efforts of ICTs staff need both the guidance and support of the management of Parliaments in order to move on with any modernization within parliaments. The stetting up of ICT Steering Committees bringing together MPs, administrative management and IT managers has a proven record of being able to create the required momentum to lead to a successful deployment of ICT.

• Institutionalisation of the Chief Information Officer.
  Parliaments need to consider the institutionalisation of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to ensure that the allocation of parliament’s knowledge management resources support the needs of the parliament and reflect the parliament’s strategic information management and technology priorities.

• ICT Service: establishing, managing, and supporting.
  Developing an ICT service structure that meets parliament's operational needs is essential. One of the most critical challenges confronting parliaments is to put in place an ICT service whose goals are clearly in line with the goals of the parliament at large.

• Institutionalisation: A professional and highly competent ICT staff who can provide critical services is essential to ensuring that a parliament can fulfill its legislative and representational mandates.  Staff must be well trained and be provided with opportunities for continuous learning.
• Establishing learning and professional development strategies. Through the use of skill-matrices and self-assessment tools, parliaments can assess their capacity level and evaluate the gaps in capacities and skills that may need to filled.